ULYSSES S. GRANT
HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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U. S. Grant, age 60 years.
From a photograph by Fredricks.
ULYSSES S. GRANT
HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER
BY
HAMLIN GARLAND
AUTHOR OF "MAIN-TRAVELED ROADS," "PRAIRIE SONGS,"
"ROSE OF DUTCHER'S COOLLY," ETC.
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1920
V
Copyright, 1898, by
HAM LIN GARLAND
INTRODUCTION
HPHIS book is not to be taken as a military history of
JL General Grant. It is not, perhaps, everything that is
understood by the word " biography," but it tells the story
of Ulysses Grant from his birth to his death. It is an at
tempt at characterization. It has not been my intention
to set down all the significant words and deeds of General
Grant, nor to analyze all the official acts of President Grant,
but to present the man Grant as he stands to-day before
unbiased critics. If I succeed in making the reader a little
better acquainted with his great and singular character, I
shall feel that my larger purpose has been carried out.
In order that I might secure the fullest understanding
of my subject, I have visited every town wherein Ulysses
Grant lived long enough to leave a distinct impression
upon its citizens. This search for first-hand material took
me at the start to southern Ohio, to Georgetown, his boy
hood home, and to Ripley, and to Maysville, Kentucky,
where he attended school in 'his youth. I also studied the
records on file in the adjutant's office at West Point, and
the newspaper files in Washington, St. Louis, New York,
Cincinnati, Detroit, Louisville, Chicago, Springfield, Ga
lena, Cairo, Memphis, Vicksburg, New Orleans, Richmond,
Monterey, and Mexico City. In all of these cities I sought
for and obtained interviews from those who had known
Ulysses Grant personally and had some significant message
to impart.
In order to realize the Mexican battle-fields, I visited
Monterey, Vera Cruz, Jalapa, Perote, Puebla, Contreras,
Churubusco, El Molino del Rey, and San Cosme. I stud-
vi INTRODUCTION
ied also the topography of Vicksburg and Milliken's Bend,
the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Richmond, and Petersburg.
The plan of the volume, in brief, is this : The first chap
ters take up the development of Ulysses Grant from his
birth to his appointment at West Point, presenting what
ever seems significant of his life at the Military Academy ;
then passes to his experiences in the Mexican War, which
formed his postgraduate course, and was his first intro
duction to national questions and to military intrigues. I
then study his period of failure in civil life, presenting him
as nearly as possible as he appeared at that time to his
family and to his friends, after it seemed that his career as
a soldier had ended. I purposely exclude all forecast and
all prophecy.
The section which deals with his command is not a his
tory of the war with the South, nor even a history of
General Grant's campaigns, but the story of his growing
command, and his marvelous development during those
four epic years. His motives for action, rather than his
action, are the chief matters of these chapters. In precisely
the same way, the delineation of the reconstruction period
is intended to satisfy the reader who asks, " What did
Ulysses Grant think during that period, and what were his
motives? "
The chapters on the Grant administrations attempt to
show what I believe to be the fact — that through all the
complications of this period, through the weltering chaos
of political knaveries and double-dealings, President Grant
pursued a simple, straightforward course. He had in him
small capacities for deceit or dishonesty. Throughout his
whole life, it seems to me, he remained practically the same
simple-minded and sincere man.
The volume does not hesitate to present the deep
shadows of the picture as well as the high lights, for they
are correlative. To leave them out would not only falsify
a human life, but would render the picture flat and cheap.
Ulysses Grant had his defeats and his sorrows. He had
his weaknesses as well as his great qualities, and they are
frankly stated.
He died right. No public life— not even that of Lincoln
INTRODUCTION Vll
— closed more attractively for the biographer. At the end
he discovered in himself new tendencies and still deeper
reserves of will-power than he had hitherto shown. He
had the great happiness, also, of seeing the love and ad
miration of the whole people, North and South, come back
to him, in higher degree than he had ever before enjoyed.
He lived long enough to understand that the people of his
native land began to perceive through all his mistakes the
steady progression of his simple purpose, which was to
rebuild the nation on a basis of perfect love and confidence
between the States. Unquestionably, the fame of Ulysses
Grant as " the great warrior of peace " is secure.
HAMLIN GARLAND.
WASHINGTON, March, 1898.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IN beginning my research in Georgetown, I received
most valuable assistance from the Hon. C. A. White,
a lifelong acquaintance of Ulysses Grant; Mrs. Lucinda B.
Powers, daughter of Dr. Bailey, Mr. Grant's near neigh
bor; Mr. U. S. Grant White, son of Carr B. White,
Grant's most intimate boy friend ; Judge James Marshall,
Ulysses' cousin ; Mr. W. H. Wilson ; the late Judge Low-
den; and Mr. Henry J. Hanna. From Admiral Daniel
Ammen I obtained many anecdotes covering a long period
of Grant's life, from his boyhood to his presidency. Cap
tain Albert Kautz and Captain U. S. Grant White of the
navy also aided me in my work.
I wish publicly to acknowledge also the valuable and
painstaking assistance of Mr. Chambers Baird of Ripley,
Ohio, who secured for me interviews with Mr. W. B.
Campbell, Mr. Morgan Murphy, Mr. W. S. Galbreath, ex-
Mayor Edwards, and others who knew Grant as a student
in Ripley and Maysville.
With regard to Grant's life at West Point, I am especially
indebted to General W. B. Franklin, General James Long-
street, General Simon B. Buckner, General D. M. Frost, and
Father Dehon, all his classmates. Through the courtesy
of the commandant, I was able to examine all the records
of Grant's conduct while a cadet ; and Mr. William Ward,
clerk in the adjutant's office at the academy, cheerfully
aided me in my search of the records. Through the cour
tesy of Mr. J. W. Lowe of Chicago and Mr. Joseph C.
Hardie of Washington, I am able to present matter hitherto
unpublished concerning Grant's life at West Point and in
ix
X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Mexico. In Mexico City, through the kindness of Mr.
Frank R. Guernsey, I was able to secure witnesses and
valuable hints giving me the point of view of the Mexican
authorities.
I received most valuable information concerning Grant's
life in Detroit from General Friend Palmer, Mr. Silas
Farmer, and J. E. Elderkin, drum-major in Grant's regi
ment. At Sackett's Harbor I had the assistance of Mr.
Walter Camp, a local historian, who remembered Grant
very well. Very early in my study I found that Albert D.
Richardson, author of " The Personal Life of U. S. Grant,"
had been most painstaking in his search for material. At
Detroit, as at St. Louis, I interviewed some of the very
men with whom he had talked nearly thirty years before.
I here acknowledge an indebtedness to his book second
only to the " Personal Memoirs." With regard to Captain
Grant's life on the coast, I am especially obliged to Colonel
Thomas M. Anderson, the present commandant of Van
couver Barracks, and Major Theodore Eckerson, now of
Portland.
With regard to Grant's return to Bethel and to St.
Louis, I am indebted for valuable information to Mr.
George B. Johnson of Cincinnati, to Mr. George W. Fish-
back and Mr. James E. Yateman of St. Louis, to Colonel
Henry Clay Wright of Carondelet, Mr. Jefferson Sapping-
ton, Esq., Mrs. John F. Long, and other of the old neigh
bors and friends in and about St. Louis. Also to Mrs.
Louisa M. Boggs, the wife of Grant's partner in the real-
estate business, and to many others.
I wish publicly to thank General Augustus L. Chetlain,
Mr. R. H. McClellan, Mr. Lewis A. Rowley (son of Gen
eral Rowley), Mr. Richard Barrett, Esq., Mr. M. T. Burke
(now of La Crosse, Wisconsin), Mr. A. H. Haines, Mr.
Carson Scott, Mr. O. B. Upson, Mr. H. B. Chetlain, and
Mr. Leigh Leslie, for assistance rendered in Galena.
In Springfield, Illinois, I had the aid of General John M.
Palmer, Mr. John W. Bunn, Mr. Lincoln Dubois, the Hon.
J. C. Conkling, and Mr. John McCann Davis. Also Cap
tain Harrison Black, Lieutenant Joseph W. Vance, Captain
S. C. Burroughs, and S. S. Boggs, all of the original mus-
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
ter of the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers. General J. E.
Smith and J. Russell Jones of Chicago also contributed
valuable interviews.
At Cairo I had the assistance of Mr. W. N. Butler, Esq.,
Lieutenant Frank Parker, Colonel J. S. Reardon, and other
veterans of the early Illinois regiments. Also valuable
material, both in interviews and writing, was obtained from
General John M. Thayre of Nebraska, Colonel L. B. Eaton
of Memphis, Major J. W. Powell of Washington, and many
others. Mr. J. W. Kirkley and Captain Leslie Perry of the
War Records Office have been most hearty in their coopera
tion. Mr. Kirkley has been for twenty years in the War
Records Department. Mr. George C. Gorham, for many
years clerk of the Senate, and a student of the recon
struction era, aided me by suggestion and criticism.
In dealing with Grant's later days I am permitted to use
information obtained from Mr. John Russell Young, Mr.
W. A. Purrington, Mr. Walter S. Johnston, Mr. George
Spencer, Captain N. E. Dawson, Dr. George H. Shrady,
and General Simon B. Buckner.
Among the principal commanders under Grant whose
personal testimony was of great value to me are Generals
H. G. Wright, J. J. Reynolds, W. B. Franklin, J. E.
Smith,* A. J. Smith,* J. H. Wilson, Robert McFeely,
T. Van Vliet, A. L. Chetlain, Colonel Amos Webster, and
Colonel C. B. Comstock. Colonel Marshall of General
Lee's staff, General Marcus Wright, and General Heth of
the Confederate service were most kind in granting the use
of testimony.
In addition to all these, I wish also to thank Mrs. U. S.
Grant and her sons Frederick, Ulysses, and Jesse for their
instant assistance when called upon either by " McClure's
Magazine " or myself.
* Since deceased.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE CHILDHOOD OF ULYSSES GRANT .... i
II BOY LIFE IN GEORGETOWN ' 8
III ULYSSES GOES TO BOARDING-SCHOOL .... 17
IV ULYSSES ENTERS WEST POINT ACADEMY ... 24
V THE TRIALS OF A PLEBE 35
VI VACATION-TIME 47
VII LAST DAYS AT WEST POINT 50
VIII GRANT'S FIRST COMMAND 54
IX GRANT'S COURTSHIP 57
X CALL TO WAR 61
XI GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE 69
XII QUARTERMASTER'S DUTIES FALL TO GRANT . . 74
XIII GRANT JOINS GENERAL SCOTT 82
XIV THE WONDERFUL INLAND MARCH 91
XV GRANT AT MOLING DEL REY 97
XVI CLOSE OF THE WAR 105
XVII GRANT'S MARRIAGE 109
XVIII LIEUTENANT GRANT is ORDERED TO THE COAST . 117
XIX GRANT is PROMOTED, BUT RESIGNS 121
XX CAPTAIN GRANT TURNS FARMER 131
XXI GRANT TRIES TO MAKE A LIVING IN ST.
Louis • 141
XXII CAPTAIN GRANT GOES NORTH 148
XXIII THE FIRST WAR MEETINGS IN GALENA ... 154
XXIV CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS . 161
xiii
XIV CONTENTS
CHAPTER PACK
XXV GRANT'S GROWING COMMAND 177
XXVI GRANT CAPTURES NATIONAL FAME . . . . 187
XXVII GRANT PUT UNDER ARREST BY GENERAL
HALLECK 194
XXVIII THE BATTLE OF SHILOH CHURCH 201
XXIX FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND . . . 208
XXX GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG 221
XXXI GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA 239
XXXII GRANT MEETS LINCOLN AND is MADE COM
MANDER-IN-CHIEF 253
XXXIII GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 268
XXXIV THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG ... 283
XXXV THE BEGINNING OF THE END 297
XXXVI THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN, THE SURREN
DER OF JOHNSTON, AND THE GRAND RE
VIEW 315
XXXVII GRANT PROTECTS HIS CONQUERED FOES . 325
XXXVIII THE GENERAL TAKES A SUMMER VACA
TION 334
XXXIX GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 344
XL GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR 365
XLI GRANT SAVES THE UNION PARTY 376
3CLII GENERAL GRANT LAYS DOWN THE SWORD . 385
y' X£lII GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE 396
[V GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY . 406
XV GRANT'S SECOND TERM 424
XLVI DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 433
XLVII GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 450
XLVIII THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 469
XLIX THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 486
L THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE 504
CONCLUSION THE DEATH-WATCH IN THE WALL . . . 517
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
U. S. GRANT, AGE 60 YEARS Frontispiece
From a photograph by Fredricks.
Pacing page
STAIRWAY IN THE GRANT HOMESTEAD AT GEORGETOWN,
OHIO 10
From a photograph taken especially for "McClure's Magazine," and now first
published.
BUILDING USED BY JESSE R. GRANT AS THE FINISHING-
HOUSE OF HIS TANNERY AT GEORGETOWN, OHIO 10
It still stands, opposite the old Grant homestead.
FACSIMILE SHOWING GRANT'S AUTOGRAPH IN THE ADJU
TANT'S RECORD, WEST POINT 32
This signature, "Ulysses Hiram Grant," was written the same day as the one,
"U. H. Grant," in the register at Roe's Hotel, May 29, 1839.
FACSIMILE OF GRANT'S CERTIFICATE OF ENLISTMENT . 32
This certificate was signed by Grant, September 14, 1839, after he had passed his
examinations. It bears what is, so far as known, Grant's earliest autograph as
U. " S. " Grant. By this time the mistake of Congressman Hamer in so naming
him to the War Department had fixed that as his official designation.
VIEW UP HUDSON RIVER FROM MORTAR- AND SIEGE-
BATTERY, WEST POINT 38
From a photograph by Pach Brothers, New York.
A "PLEBE" BOAT-RACE, WEST POINT 38
From a photograph loaned by Lieutenant S. C. Hazzard, West Point.
A SKETCH MADE BY GRANT ABOUT THE TIME HE WAS
AT WEST POINT 48
Reproduced by permission from the original drawing, owned by C. F. Gunther,
Chicago, and now first published.
XV
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing page
A WATER-COLOR SKETCH MADE BY GRANT ABOUT THE
TIME HE WAS AT WEST POINT 48
Reproduced by permission from the original, owned by Mrs. Rotherey, Newark,
New Jersey, and now first published.
U. S. GRANT AS BREVET SECOND LIEUTENANT, AGE 21
YEARS 54
Taken in Cincinnati in 1843, just after graduation from West Point.
U. S. GRANT AS CAPTAIN, WHILE STATIONED AT SACKETTS
HARBOR, NEW YORK 1849, AGE 27 YEARS ... 54
From a very small miniature.
THE HOUSE IN WHICH GRANT WENT TO SCHOOL AT
GEORGETOWN, OHIO 58
" WHITE-HAVEN," THE I)ENT HOMESTEAD NEAR ST.
Louis, MISSOURI 58
Redrawn from an old drawing owned by Mrs. U. S. Grant.
LIEUTENANT U. S. GRANT AND LIEUTENANT ALEXANDER
HAYS IN 1845, WHEN THEY WERE STARTING FOR
THE MEXICAN WAR 66
The original picture, owned by Mrs. Agnes M. Hays Gormly, was taken at Camp
Salubrity, Louisiana, in 1845. Beside Grant (the figure in the background) is his
racing pony Dandy, and beside Lieutenant Hays is his pony Sunshine. The two
men had been fellow-cadets at West Point, and served in the same regiment in the
Mexican War. Afterward Hays, like Grant, retired from the army, to reenter it
at the breaking out of the Civil War as a colonel of volunteers. He became a
brigadier-general, and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. Grant, on
learning of his death, said : "I am not surprised that he met his death at the
head of his troops; it was just like him. He was a man who would never follow,
but would always lead, in battle."
GRANT AT CHAPULTEPEC 100
The battle of Chapultepec, showing Grant's regiment, the Fourth Infantry, in the
foreground on the right.
HOUSE IN WHICH GENERAL GRANT WAS MARRIED, ST.
Louis, MISSOURI . : . . . . . . . ... . . no
From a recent photograph taken expressly for "McClure's Magazine."
WEST FRONT OF FORTIFICATION AND BARRACKS, FORT
WAYNE, DETROIT 114
From a photograph loaned by Captain E. D. Smith of the Fifteenth Infantry.
The building shown was erected in 1848, the year Grant first went to Detroit,
and is the only one now standing at Fort Wayne that could have been in existence
when Grant was stationed there.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii
Facing page
OFFICERS' BARRACKS, SACKETTS HARBOR, NEW YORK . 114
From a photograph owned by Colonel Walter B. Camp.
THE HOUSE IN WHICH GRANT LIVED AT FORT VAN
COUVER IN 1852 AND 1853 122
Redrawn from a photograph loaned by Colonel Thomas M. Anderson, present com
mandant of Fort Vancouver.
FORT VANCOUVER 122
Redrawn from a painting by Dr. Covington, now owned by Captain James A.
Buchanan of the Eleventh Infantry.
MRS. U. S. GRANT AND HER Two ELDEST CHILDREN,
FREDERICK D. AND ULYSSES S., JR., ABOUT 1854 . 133
From a daguerreotype taken at St. Louis, now owned by Mr. U. S/ Grant, Jr.,
and reproduced here with his permission.
GRANT'S LETTER OFFERING HIS SERVICES TO THE
GOVERNMENT 162
In the original letter the last three lines and the signature are on a second page.
U. S. GRANT, AGE 41 YEARS 228
Taken in 1863, before Vicksburg. From a defective negative.
DISTINGUISHED GENERALS WHO WERE FELLOW-CADETS
OF GRANT AT WEST POINT 240
From the Civil War collection of Mr. Robert Coster.
U. S. GRANT EARLY IN 1865, NEAR THE CLOSE OF THE
WAR, AGE 43 YEARS 308
From a spoiled negative.
U. S. GRANT NOT LONG BEFORE HIS FIRST ELECTION AS
PRESIDENT, AGE 46 YEARS 386
U. S. GRANT SOON AFTER HIS FIRST INAUGURATION AS
PRESIDENT, AGE 47 YEARS 386
HANNAH SIMPSON GRANT, MOTHER OF GENERAL GRANT 396
From an original photograph owned by Helen M. Burke, La Crosse, Wisconsin.
JESSE ROOT GRANT, FATHER OF GENERAL GRANT, AGE
69 YEARS 424
From an original photograph owned by Helen M. Burke of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Pacing page
U. S. GRANT AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS SECOND TERM
As PRESIDENT, AGE 51 YEARS 426
From a photograph by Brady.
U. S. GRANT, AGE 54 YEARS 446
GRANT WITH Li HUNG CHANG 466
U. S. GRANT WHEN HE TOOK UP HIS RESIDENCE IN
NEW YORK, AGE 59 YEARS 488
From a photograph by W. Kurtz.
GENERAL GRANT AND HIS FAMILY AT MOUNT MCGREGOR
IN THE CLOSING DAYS OF HIS LIFE 518
ULYSSES GRANT; SECOND
PREFACE
SINCE this book was written (in 1896) nearly all
of the contemporaries of Ulysses Grant have passed
to the silent majority. Hardly one of all those who were
most valuable witnesses to his deeds and his character
are now alive. Within ten years after I secured the testi
mony of Generals Buckner, Franklin, Wright, and Long-
street, they, like others of his classmates, comrades, and
antagonists, had passed away. My work was hardly com
pleted before some of them were no longer able to give
their testimony.
To see General Longstreet I journeyed all the way
from New York City to Gainesville, Georgia, but the story
to which I listened was amply worth the journey. All
the afternoon and evening I listened and watched while
the heroic shadows of the past filed through the old man's
mind. His tall, stooping figure and his dim eyes were
already touched with the coming mist of evening, but his
spirit was that of a gallant chieftain. He had no equivocal
words concerning Grant. He loved him and honored him.
From Jefferson Sapington, Grant's neighbor on the Gra-
vois, and from the wife of Grant's partner, Mrs. Henry
Boggs, as well as from Burke who worked as a clerk in the
Galena store, I gathered invaluable personal material,
knowing well that their terms of life were each year more
uncertain. Most of my witnesses are gone, but their rec
ords help to form this book. Others are in my files to
be used in case of need, interlined with corrections by the
witnesses themselves. All of them were used in making
up the judgments in this volume.
With Grant's friends have also departed his enemies.
I sat one evening in an obscure Chicago tenement beside
the bed of MacDonald, one of the Whisky Ring leaders,
xxi
xxii ULYSSES S. GRANT; SECOND PREFACE
patiently enduring his long and tedious tale, which had very
little to do with Grant and a great deal to do with him
self. In an eastern country house, I took notes while one
of Grant's military critics paced up and down the room,
thundering out his argument to prove that Ulysses Grant
was a vastly overrated man and that he (a subordinate)
was the real author of the Vicksburg Campaign.
Time has its terrible revenges ! Who now cares whether
this man or that man considered himself a bigger man
than Grant? Into the night they go, one and all, while
the man who called for " Unconditional Surrender," and
who said, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes
all summer," holds his place beside Abraham Lincoln as
the man who saved the Union in 1865.
If I were writing this story to-day, I should lay greater
stress on the estrangement which came between Ulysses
Grant and his father after his resignation from the army,
for the reason that it accounts in large measure for his
apparent failure as a civilian. No man, no matter how
great he may be, can escape these domestic complications,
and Grant was no exception. Any history of him which
leaves out the antagonisms of The Dents and The Grants
will be a false picture — or at least a faulty picture, for old
Jesse Grant was not only deeply disappointed in his son's
marriage into a slave-owning family, he refused to aid
him so long as he continued to live in the South. He is
reported to have said, " Ulysses, when you are ready to
come North I will give you a start, but so long as you
make your home among a tribe of slave-owners I will do
nothing."
Grant was a loyal and tender husband, hence he stayed
on in St. Louis, trying, for his wife's sake, to make a living
in a region where he was at once an alien and a suspect.
Concerning this time Mrs. Boggs, the wife of Captain
Grant's partner in the real estate business, is a com
petent witness, and I have in hand careful notes of her
testimony. The picture which she draws of Grant at this
time is sad but admirable. "When he came to live at our
house he was in despair," she says in her letter to me.
"He was gentle and dignified and uncomplaining, but it
ULYSSES S. GRANT; SECOND PREFACE xxiii
was pitiful to see him sitting silently in the cold, bare little
room which he rented of us. He was sober and willing to
work and he did work, but in those disturbed times he
found it difficult to find employment. He had no trade,
no profession, and he was a Northerner. That must never
be left out of the account."
It is all fought out and swiftly receding now, and we can
speak of it without heat as a powerful factor in the life
of one of the world's great figures. A cannonball tosser
cannot exercise with feathers, and this great military
genius, in times of peace and in a community where every
body was politically opposed to him, was helpless. It was
not a matter of dissipation. I have gone into all that
with the greatest care, and I can report once again that
Grant, even in that dark hour, was a gentleman. Mrs.
Boggs said, "I liked him and respected him even while I
felt sorry for him."
The use of slaves on the farm at Gravois was a source
of irritation and shame to Grant. Jefferson Sapington told
me that he and Grant used to work in the fields with the
blacks. He said with glee, " Grant was helpless when it
came to making slaves work," and Mrs. Boggs corrobo
rated this. "He was no hand to manage negroes," she
said. "He couldn't force them to do anything. He
wouldn't whip them. He was too gentle and good tem
pered — and besides he was not a slavery man. I can see
him now as he used to sit so humbly at my fireside. He
had no exalted opinion of himself at any time, but in those
days he was almost in despair. He walked the streets
looking for something to do. He was actually the most
obscure man in St. Louis. Nobody took any notice of
him. He tried in every possible way to get his capabilities
before the people, and failed. It was never in him to push
himself forward. St. Louis was very hot politically that
year, and I remember well the time came when my hus
band refused to shake hands with him for taking the
1 wrong side,' as we called it then. The Dents were all
Southern and so were we.
"It was a hard situation for Captain Grant. He was a
Northern man married into a Southern, slave-owning
xxiv ULYSSES S. GRANT; SECOND PREFACE
family and Dent openly despised him. We all said 'Poor
Julia ! ' when we spoke of her marriage. Grant's habits
were good while he lived with us. I recall hearing Mr.
Boggs say to Richardson, the historian, ' I never saw Grant
under the influence of liquor in my life.' Grant was not a
man to frequent saloons. He was not that kind of a man.
"He was a sad man. I never heard him laugh out loud.
He would smile and he was not what you would call a
gloomy man, but he was a sad man. He was a gentle,
kind man with no special powers for getting along. I
don't think he saw any light ahead — not a particle. I
don't think he had any ambition further than to feed and
clothe his little family.
"His mind was almost always somewhere else. He said
very little unless some war topic came up. If you men
tioned Napoleon's battles or the Mexican War he was
fluent enough. He was a domestic man, extremely home-
loving in his ways, and his wife had a very great influence
over him. I have no doubt she kept him in St. Louis
longer than he otherwise would have stayed. The Dents
took pride in their Southern birth, while the Grants were
hard-working, economical folks. The two families never
fused. Old Jesse Grant was very outspoken about it.
I recall his saying to me, 'Are you related to that Dent
tribe?' He used just that word tribe, and it meant a great
deal as he spoke it. After Grant took the Northern side
Colonel Dent was furious, swore he'd shoot Grant if he
ever set foot on his farm. Of course this was in the wild
days of sixty-one and two. Mrs. Dent always liked
Captain Grant and believed in his ability."
These family antagonisms explain many curious facts.
There is no record that Grant's mother ever saw the White
House, but there is positive testimony that old Jesse never
slept there — the Dents were in possession ! No doubt
this friction was a sorrow to Grant, but it was not a con
dition which military genius could alter. He bore with it
patiently and nobly. No one ever heard him complain
of it, but it must be reckoned with in any estimate of his
otherwise incomprehensible stay in Missouri.
In looking back upon Grant's marvellous career from the
ULYSSES S. GRANT; SECOND PREFACE XXV
standpoint of the World War we naturally ask ourselves,
"Has he suffered diminishment ? " In my judgment he
has not. His armies have been reduced by comparison
with the millions in command of Foch, but the amazing
military skill and the invincible soul of the silent com
mander remain. Indeed his personality looms ever larger
in our history. No other figure save that of Lincoln
disputes that far horizon with him. He fought the Civil
War to a victorious end, and in his terms of peace he showed
a spirit which is in sharp contrast with the ruthless cam
paigns of the German generals. He fought like a gallant
and chivalrous soldier, expressing neither hatred nor
revenge. He battled with grim, invincible resolution,
but always without heat or exultation. No great soldier
ever lived with a kindlier, saner spirit.
In the matter of trench warfare he was a pioneer.
When his armies sank into the ground before Vicksburg,
they forecast the long line from Belgium to the Alps.
The precision of his campaigns in Tennessee and Virginia
has not been surpassed by any modern general, and his
skill in handling an army is reflected in the concise, clear,
and masterly phrases in which his orders are expressed.
War with him was not an adventure, but a duty. He
loathed strife. The pomp and glory of an army were re
pellent to him, and he took no part in any parade where his
presence was not necessary. His modesty in the midst
of military display makes him one of the strangest com
manders in the annals of war. He had the genius which
is unaccountable — the ability to do the unforeseen.
Without doubt he would have been a supreme commander
in France, adequate and imperturbable.
With regard to his place as President he gains rather
than loses by the passage of time. As the men who were
his bitter political enemies pass away and the issues for
which he really stood grow clearer, it is evident that he
was adequate in the White House. His mistakes were
after all in minor matters. He stood for the Union, for
justice, for clemency all the time. As he had no hate in
battle, so he had no vindictiveness in reconstruction. He
kept the peace and he executed the laws.
XXvi ULYSSES S. GRANT; SECOND PREFACE
He was not a law-maker. His conception of the presi
dency was not like that held by later occupants of the
White House. He was in no sense a dictator, he was care
ful not to usurp any of the functions of the legislative or
judicial branches of the government. Ludicrous as it now
seems, this "Man on Horseback" was accused of desiring
to be a Czar, and yet he never asked for any power which
did not belong to the Executive Branch of the government.
No man ever sat in the chair who was more scrupulous
about this point. It is true he exercised his powers in the
manner of a soldier, but it was at a time when he was
needed. He was the one man whom the people entirely
trusted. His former opponents depended upon him and
were not betrayed.
Washington, Lincoln, Grant — this is the way the names
of our great men run. Washington who established the
Republic, Lincoln who freed the slaves, and Grant who
saved the Union with the force of arms. This sequence
cannot be broken. All other names, glorious as they may
be, will be counted after these. So long as this Union is
an inspiration and a power, so long as the United States
shall last as an entity, these names will be emblazoned at
the head of the long roll of our most illustrious dead.
HAMLIN GARLAND.
NEW YORK, 1920.
GARLANDS LIFE OF
GRANT
CHAPTER I
THE CHILDHOOD OF ULYSSES GRANT
T TLYSSES GRANT was born in a cabin home standing
LJ in a little village on the north bank of the Ohio
River, at a point about twenty- five miles east of Cincin
nati. This cabin stood comparatively unchanged up to
the year 1885, when it was taken down and removed to
Columbus as a relic.
It was a one-story building of two very small rooms,
with an outside chimney at one end, in the manner of
Southern cottages. In one room the family lived in the
daytime, cooking at the big fireplace, and eating at a pine
table. In the other room they slept.
It was almost as humble in appearance as the home in
which Abraham Lincoln first saw the light The village
was called Point Pleasant, and it was indeed a beautiful
place. Below the door the Ohio River curved away into
blue distance, and behind it rose hills covered with tall
woods of oak and walnut and ash. At that time the river
was the great highway, and over its steel-bright surface
the stern- wheel steamers Daniel Boom and Simon Ken-
ton plied amid many flatboats, like immense swans sur
rounded by awkward water-bugs.
2 °.'V'. : , .tLIEE OF GRANT
At this time Point Pleasant had hopes of being a
metropolis. It was deceived. It is to-day a very small
village, at whose wharf only an occasional steamer conde
scends to stop. In 1820 it contained, among other indus
tries, a tannery ; and the foreman of this tannery was an
ambitious, stalwart young fellow named Jesse Grant. He
had been in business for himself some years before, and
was looking for a chance to begin again. Sickness had
broken him up in business at Ravenna, and had swept
away his savings — savings which represented the most
unremitting toil and the most rigorous self-denial; but
he was once more accumulating a fund, and was nearly
ready for a second venture.
He married, in 1821, a slender, self-contained young
girl named Hannah Simpson — a girl of most excellent
quality, handsome, but not vain, and of great steadiness
of purpose. In 1822 his first son was born, and in 1823
tanner Grant decided upon Georgetown as the best point
to set up a tannery of his own. His keen perception of
the commercial changes going on decided this movement.
Georgetown was the county-seat of the new county of
Brown, and had the further advantage of being situated
in a wilderness of tan-bark. By reason of its oaks,
Georgetown became the boyhood home of Ulysses Grant.
The Grant family made a vivid impression upon the
citizens of Georgetown at once. Jesse Grant was a
strong man physically and mentally, though possessed
of many idiosyncrasies. He was nearly six feet in height,
and alive to his finger-tips. His head was large and his
face strongly modeled, but his eyes were weak and near
sighted. He looked the transplanted New-Englander he
was.
He came of a strong family of most admirable record.
His father and grandfather had been soldiers in the colo
nial and Revolutionary wars respectively, his grandfather
attaining the rank of captain. His father was lieutenant
at Lexington, and fought through the entire Revolution
ary War. The Grants had been Connecticut Yankees for
several generations, and Jesse brought the vigor, hardi
hood, and shrewd economy of his forebears to the less
THE CHILDHOOD OF ULYSSES GRANT 3
thrifty Ohio border. He took a prominent position in
the village at once ; for he loved to talk, to make speeches,
and to argue, and, besides holding advanced ideas, he
wrote rhymes. He had the gentle art of making enemies
as well as friends. He was pronouncedly of the North ;
his neighbors were mainly of the South.
Hannah Simpson, his wife, had no discoverable enemies.
She was almost universally beloved as a Christian woman
and faithful wife and mother. But it took longer to know
her. She was the most reticent of persons. " Ulysses
got his reticence, his patience, his equable temper, from
his mother," is the verdict of those who knew both father
and mother. Others go further and say : " He got his
sense from his mother."
In truth, the Simpsons were a fine old family. They
were quite as martial as the Grants, were as genuinely
American in their history, and were possessed apparently
of greater self-control. Hannah Simpson was the daugh
ter of John Simpson, a man with the restless heart of a
pioneer, who had left his ancestral home in Pennsylvania,
near Philadelphia, and had settled in Clermont County,
Ohio, a few years before. He had built a brick house
and opened a large farm, and his position was most hon
orable in his town of Bantam. Hannah Simpson, his
daughter, seems to have gathered up and carried forward
to her son Ulysses the best qualities of her people. That
she was a remarkable woman all her neighbors bear testi
mony. She never complained of any hardship or toil or
depression. She seldom laughed, and her son Ulysses
once said, " I never saw her shed a tear in my life." She
was as proud of her family history as her husband was of
his, but she said nothing about it. She never argued,
never boasted, and never gossiped of her neighbors. Her
husband bore testimony of her character in words well
chosen : " Her steadiness and strength of character have
been the stay of the family through life." Her old neigh
bors call her " a noble woman."
A large part of the criticism of Jesse Grant arose from
two sources — his disputatiousness and his Northern pre
judices. In 1823, as now, Georgetown was inhabited by
4 LIFE OF GRANT
native families, that is to say, by families at least two re
moves from the old world, as a roster of the names will
show. There was scarcely an Italian, Russian, French, or
Scandinavian among them ; but many were from Kentucky
and Virginia, and the town partook almost equally of
South and North in respect of customs, speech, and politi
cal prejudices ; possibly at that time the South predomi
nated. Jesse Grant was a Yankee, and a natural radical in
politics. He was quite ready to argue, and dispute arose
at once.
The village was laid out around the court-house square,
in Southern fashion. It was a town hewn out of a mighty
forest of trees. On every side the lofty walnut and maple
and oak and ash trees stood in ranks, and the farmers tilled
around the immovably rooted boles of girdled oaks. To
this day the fringes and fragments of woods, and especially
the stumps, testify of the giants of other days.
The town, consisting of a score of houses, possibly, was
set just where the broken land, some ten miles back from
the Ohio River, levels up into a sort of plateau, with
White Oak Creek to the west and Straight Creek to the
east. The soil was fat and productive, as the settler could
well perceive by measuring the giant oaks which had risen
out of it, and he set himself to work like some valorous
but inconsiderate and inconsiderable insect to gnaw down
the forest and let in the sunlight upon his corn and
potatoes.
/xThe life which the boy Ulysses touched was therefore
primitive, unrefined, and serious. The manners of the vil
lage were almost as rude as those of the farms. The houses
were small, unadorned, and overcrowded with children.
The women cooked at the open fireplaces with pots and
cranes, with " reflectors " and " Dutch ovens " as luxuries.
The ceilings were very low, the walls bare, the furniture
rude and scanty. The interiors were without a single touch
of refining grace, save when at night the fireplace threw a
golden glory over the rough plaster, and filled the corners
-^of.the room with mystery of shadow-play.
The type of house most common was a modification in
frame or brick of the woodsman's cabin, with a chimney
THE CHILDHOOD OF ULYSSES GRANT 5
at each end, and a little lean-to kitchen behind. The Grant
home for the first few years was a small, low brick structure
with one room, a kitchen, and a garret. This means that
the family ate, met their kind, and slept in two rooms.
This almost universal poverty of room produced the trun
dle-bed, which shoved under the bed of the parents like a
bureau drawer. More ambitious houses were soon built,
but in general the two-roomed cabin continued to be the
typical home of the villager as well as of the woodsman.
Newspapers were few, but they were read with minute
care. Life was timed to the slow pulsing to and fro of the
clumsy stage, and to the stately languor of the stern- wheel
steamers, whose booming roar sounded clamorously in the
night from the river mist ten miles away. The fact that
Georgetown was an inland town, and that it was a farming
community, kept it comparatively free from broil and blood
shed, rude though it was. It had also repose and a cer
tain security of life which found some compensation for its
remoteness. Ripley, down on the Ohio River ten miles
away, was the principal market, but it seemed likely to be
more. It was considered entitled to regular stops on the
part of the steamers, which swung to with elaborate and
disdainful courtesy in answer to signals from the lesser
towns. From Ripley or Higginsport, Georgetown was
reached by stage over hill and through deep woods.
Ulysses Grant lived for sixteen years in this locality,
and upon the boy mind were impressed the faces, the
speech, the manners, and the daily habits of these people.
He loved the town with the love men have for the things
thus clothed upon with childish wonder, and which never
lose their halo.
The citizens were a plain people of unesthetic tempera
ment, sturdy of arm and resolute of heart, as befitted
woodsmen. " Nonsense " they could not abide, and they
were quick to perceive Jesse Grant's " foolish pride " in
his little son Ulysses. They were amused at this name
" Ulysses," which they soon parodied into " Useless."
11 How did you come to saddle such a name on the poor
child?" some of them asked.
The story was curious. A.S related by the father, it
LIFE OF GRANT
appeared that after the birth of his eldest son the common
difficulty of choosing a name arose. Multitudes of sugges
tions only confused the young parents the more, until at
last it was proposed to cast the names into a hat. This
was done. A romantic aunt suggested " Theodore." The
mother favored " Albert," in honor of Albert Gallatin.
Grandfather Simpson voted " Hiram," because he con
sidered it a handsome name. The drawing resulted in
two names, Hiram and Ulysses.
" Ulysses," it is said, was cast into the hat by Grand
mother Simpson, who had been reading a translation of
Fenelon's " Telemachus," and had been much impressed
by the description given of Ulysses. The boy was
named " Hiram Ulysses Grant." But the father always
called him Ulysses, and never Hiram. " My Ulysses "
was a common expression of his, and the rude jesters of
the village mocked his utterance of it.
Other children came to the Grants — Simpson (three
years younger), Clara, Virginia, Orvil (nearly thirteen years
younger), and Mary, the youngest of them all ; but Ulysses
remained the father's pride, and upon him he built ah
his hopes. Ulysses developed early into a self-reliant
child, active and healthy. He came at the age of seven
to a share in the work about the house and yard. He be
gan to pick up chips and to carry in the wood for the big
fireplaces, quite like the son of a farmer. He was called
" Lys," or, in the soft drawl of the South, " Lyssus " ; his
playmates had not yet begun to find it worth while to
tease him about his name. He had wonderful love for
horses, and as soon as he could toddle he delighted to go
out across the yard, where, at the hitching-poles before
the finishing-room of the tannery, several teams were al
most always to be found on pleasant days. He crawled
about between the legs of the dozing horses, and swung
by their tails in perfect content, till some timid mother
near by rushed in to Mrs. Grant with excited outcry:
" Mrs. Grant, do you know where your boy is? He 's out
there swinging on the tails of Loudon's horses!"
But Mrs. Grant never seemed to worry about Ulysses in
the least. She was not of those mothers whose maternal
THE CHILDHOOD OF ULYSSES GRANT 7
love casts a correspondingly deep shadow of agonizing
fear. " When Ulysses was sick she gave him a dose of
castor-oil, put him to bed, and went calmly about her
work, trusting in the Lord and the boy's constitution," one
neighbor said.
Mrs. Grant saw that Ulysses understood horses, and
that they understood him, so she interfered very little in
his play with the teams across the way. She was too busy
to have an eye to his restless activity.
CHAPTER II
BOY LIFE IN GEORGETOWN
r
T eight years of age Ulysses began to drive a team
and to break bark into the hopper of the bark-mill,
which was precisely like a big coffee-mill, put in action by
a horse attached to a circling sweep. Into a big iron
hopper it was the boy's duty to break the long slabs of
bark with a mallet. The strips as they came from the woods
were several feet in length, and in order to reach the
grinding machinery they needed to be broken into chunks
four or five inches long. This was wearisome business,
especially when the pawpaws were ripe and the hawk was
indolently floating on the western wind. The mill stood
under a shed where there was nothing to see, and, besides,
the boy doing the work was obliged to keep his head out
of the way of the sweep, and to see that the horse kept a
steady gait. " If you stopped to think how many strips
were ahead of you the thought was appalling."
Breaking bark did not please Ulysses so well as driving
the team which hauled the bark from the woods, and he
escaped it in every way possible. When his father said
to him, " We shall have to go to grinding bark," he would
rise " without saying a word, and start straight for ths
village, to get a load to haul or passengers to carry, or
something or other to do, and hire a boy to come and
grind the bark." He was sometimes able to persuade the
girls to help him by exalting the privilege, in the way of
Tom Sawyer, and by earnestly detailing the need there
was of his riding on the sweep behind the horse. This was
great generalship, and across the space of half a century
BOY LIFE IN GEORGETOWN 9
his girl playmates still remember his roguish triumph.
He was always on hand, also, when the wheat was being
threshed, or for any work in which there was a chance to
ride a horse.
All around him, during those years, the mighty battle
with the forest went on. Axes rang incessantly; trees
crashed and fell ; columns of smoke rose to the sky at mid
day, and splendid fires glowed at night. It was like the
attack of brownies on a chained and helpless army of
giants. The steam sawmill had not yet added its devour
ing teeth to the destruction of the trees; it was mainly
hand-work. Ulysses took active part in this devastation.
He helped strip the bark from the oaks and set fire to the
stumps and the heaps of branches. He drove team when
the bark was carried to the mill, and he lent a hand to roll
the useless logs into piles to be burned. There was
something splendid in this activity, while the tannery grew
more and more repulsive to him, and secretly he made up
his mind never to be a tanner. He would grind bark in
the yard, if need were, but to scrape hides, or even handle
them, was out of the question. He never came nearer to
being a tanner than this.
About a mile to the west of the village square a little
stream called White Oak Creek runs through a deep coulee,
or valley. In those days the stream was a strong, swift
current, and there were mills for grinding corn and wheat
located along its banks ; and the farmers came in caravans
from the clearings far to the north with grain to be ground,
and at night they camped like an army-corps in the splen
did open forest of the bottom-lands. It was a beautiful
experience for the boys of Georgetown to see these camp-
fires gleaming all over the lowlands, to hear the mules and
horses call for supper, to see the smoke curling up, and to
hear the hearty talk and laughter of the men. This was
a favorite playing-ground for the boys, and Ulysses longed
to join these caravans.
The creek was full of fish at that time. There were
swimming-holes, which became skating-ponds in due sea
son, and all good things to eat grew on these bottom
lands. Then, too, the teams filed past on their way to
10 LIFE OF GRANT
Higginsport with their flour to load on the flatboats bound
for New Orleans. It all had mystery and allurement in it,
and one of the strongest passions Ulysses Grant felt at this
time was the wish to travel — to go down the Ohio River
and see where the water went to ; to go up the river and
find where the flatboats came from. He said little of this
longing, for he was trained to hide his emotions.
Ten years of careful management made Jesse Grant one
of the well-to-do citizens of the town. He had a com
fortable brick house, he wore gold-bowed glasses, and he
possessed a carnage. Most people went afoot or on horse
back in that day, but he had a driving outfit, which
Ulysses began to use when a mere child. " At eight and
a half years he had become a regular teamster," his father
states, " and used to work my team all day, day after day,
hauling wood. At about ten years of age he used to
drive a pair of horses all alone from Georgetown, where
he lived, to Cincinnati, forty miles away, and bring home
a load of passengers."
His father did not insist on his working about the bark-
mill, provided he obtained a substitute, and readily enough
intrusted Ulysses with a team, and was quite willing for
him to have a horse of his own. Indeed, he allowed him
to manage the horses and take part in the farming. Chil-
ton White, one of his playmates, remembers that he was
always busy. " He was a stout, rugged boy, with a good
deal of sleight in his work with a team. He liked horses,
and always kept his span fat and slick."
When Ulysses was in his twelfth year, a traveling
phrenologist confirmed the father in his belief in his son's
great ability. Of this famous incident there are two ver
sions. The father's story runs thus :
When Ulysses was about twelve years old the first
phrenologist who ever made his appearance in that part of
the country came to the neighborhood. He awakened a
good deal of interest in the science, and was prevailed
upon to remain there for some time. One Dr. Buckner,
who was rather inclined to be officious on most occasions,
in order to test the accuracy of the phrenologist, asked
him if he would be blindfolded and examine a head.
Stairway in the Grant homestead at Georgetown, Ohio.
From a photograph taken especially for this work.
Building used by Jesse R. Grant as the finishing-house of his
tannery at Georgetown, Ohio.
It still stands, opposite the old Grant homestead.
BOY LIFE IN GEORGETOWN I I
This was at one of his public lectures. The phrenologist
replied that he would. So they blindfolded him, and
Drought Ulysses forward to have his head examined.
He felt it all over for some time, saying, apparently to
nimself : " It is no very common head! It is an extraor
dinary head! " At length Dr. Buckner broke in to ask
whether the boy would be likely to distinguish himself in
mathematics.
" Yes," said the phrenologist ; " in mathematics or any
thing else. It would not be strange if we should see him
President of the United States." This made an inefface
able impression upon the father, and confirmed him in his
belief that his son Ulysses was a child of destiny.
The village version of the incident is quite different.
With all his shrewdness and energy, the neighbors say,
there was a strain of singular guilelessness in Jesse Grant.
He was credulous and simple — in the old meaning of the
word "simple."
According to their report, Dr. Buckner was only put
ting up a practical joke on his neighbor Grant. As the
timid and blushing Ulysses was pushed forward to the
platform the crowd began to titter, and the quick-witted
lecturer seized upon the situation. It was to him another
numskull son of a doting father. As he muttered to
m'mself the crowd roared with delight. He spoke over this
boy's head the same word of prophecy he had used in a
hundred similar cases. It was a perfectly successful joke.
The father believed the cheering to be in honor of his son.
Ridicule made no difference with him ; he stuck to his
faith unshakably.
His faith, moreover, expressed itself in deeds. He sent
Ulysses to school, in face of much discouragement. Being
mindful of his own lack of education, and believing in his
son, Jesse Grant was always an active supporter of the
teacher. At a time when " book-1'arnin' " was at a sad
discount, and when every hand was needed to make a liv
ing, the indomitable tanner kept his son in school, not let
ting him miss a day, thus setting his grim lips firmly in
the face of derision.
Mrs. Grant's sweetness and strength of character kep*
12 LIFE OF GRANT
her one of the best beloved women of the town, while her
husband's outspoken, dogmatic opinions upon all public
policies made him to be both disliked and respected.
He was withal a sober man and an honorable man, and
Mrs. Grant was considered a fortunate woman by her
neighbors because her husband was "such a good pro
vider." The Grant house was considered one of the best
furnished in the neighborhood. Mrs. Grant acquiesced in
the plans to make Ulysses a great man, and through her
efforts he was always nicely dressed and ready for school.
How much further her love went she gave little sign.
The feeling against Jesse Grant on the part of the pro-
slavery element developed rancor on the part of many of
the village boys toward Ulysses, and he suffered thereby
not a little. According to the tales of old residents, the
boys "were always laying for him," and stories are still
current in Georgetown which are calculated to make him
out a stupid lad. Of such is the famous horse-trade story,
wherein Ulysses is said to have raised his own bid two
points without waiting for answer on the part of the seller.
In spite of these stories, it appears that the boys who
knew him best had a high regard for him. He had a way
of doing things which commanded respect. He had trav
eled a great deal, — he had been to Cincinnati, to Maysville,
and to Louisville on business for his father, — and he had a
team to drive just as if it were his own. These things
entitled him to a certain respect on the part of his comrades.
"There were, in fact, two sets of boys in the town, one
very rough, and one very quiet set — that is to say, well-
meaning; for while they were full of fun and noise, they
were good, clean boys; they did not use liquor or tobacco;
and it was to this company that Ulysses belonged. It was his
habit to associate with boys older than himself, and this, with
his staid demeanor, made him seem older than his years."
He seldom did anything which could even be called
thoughtless.* "He was the soul of honor," another play
mate bears witness.
* Judge James Marshall tells an amusing story of his hospitable nature.
There had been a cholera scare in town, and Uncle Jesse, being one of the
few men who had traveled and knew a thing or two, was commissioned to go
to Maysville and procure a supply of the cholera medicine which was used at
BOY LIFE IN GEORGETOWN 13
At ten years of age he had become a remarkable team
ster. He amazed his companions by his ability to manage
and train horses. There was something mysterious in his
power to communicate to a horse his wishes. He could
train a horse to trot, rack, or pace, apparently at will. He
would do any honorable thing in order to ride or drive a
fine horse.
When he was about eleven years of age he made a
reputation among the boys by riding the trick pony of a
circus which came in trailing clouds of glorified dust, one
summer day, like a scene from the " Arabian Nights."
" It was a small animal show and circus," said Judge
Marshall, " and one part of the entertainment was to turn
a kangaroo loose in the ring, and ask some lively-footed
boy to catch it. I considered myself a pretty good runner
in those days, and I tried to catch the kangaroo, to the
vast amusement of the people looking on. Ulysses, how
ever, was a plump boy, and not a good runner. He made
no attempt at the kangaroo, but was deeply interested in
the trick pony which had been trained to throw off any boy
who attempted to ride him. He was a very fat bay pony,
with no mane, and nothing at all to hang to. Ulysses
looked on for a while, saw several of the other boys try
and fail, and at last said: ' I believe I can ride that pony.'
He anticipated the pony's attempts to throw him off by
leaning down and putting his arms around the pony's neck.
The pony reared, kicked, and did everything he knew to
unhorse Ulysses, but failed ; and at last the clown acknow
ledged the pony's defeat, and paid the five dollars which
that time. He brought back a demijohn of blackberry cordial, and a jug of
medicine of that time which was popularly known as "No. 6." No. 6
had various uses ; it was a good thing to rub on a sprain, bruise, etc. One
Sunday, shortly afterward, while the old people were all at church, the boys,
tired with turning handsprings on the tan-bark, expressed a thirst, and Ulys
ses invited them all to come down cellar and test the cholera medicine. " We
did not know how it was to be taken," said Judge Marshall, " but I know
how we took it. With fine generosity, Ulysses offered us the No. 6, and we
tasted it, and we did not like it. He then asked us to try the blackberry
cordial, which we did, and liked ; and thereafter we often went down cellar to
have a pull at the cholera medicine. I don't know whether we took it right
or not, but certain it is we did not take the cholera. ... At this time Ulysses
was a plump, short, ruddy, staid, manly boy, never given to pranks. He
never backed out of anything, and avoided any prominence; what he had to
do he did well and promptly."
14 LIFE OF GRANT
he had promised to the boy who would ride him. As
Ulysses turned away with the five dollars in his hand, he
said to the boys standing round : ' Why, that pony is as
slick as an apple.' '
There are stories, also, which seem to illustrate his fer
tility of resource in practical affairs, and others to show
his pertinacity of purpose.
He was a successful farmer, and liked it very much ; in
fact, his life was nearer that of a farmer's boy than a
tanner's son. He was thrifty, too. " While the other boys
were at play he was earning a quarter." All testimony
points to his being a very busy and resourceful boy.
He always had pocket-money earned by teaming. He
worked willingly and steadily at hauling, breaking bark,
and plowing.
When he was not at work about the tannery or farm, he
was conveying travelers to Ripley, to Maysville, to Hig-
ginsport, to West Union, or to Cincinnati. In this way
he earned enough money to buy a horse of his own.
Once, when he was about thirteen years of age, he took
a couple of lawyers across country to Toledo. Every
body was astonished to think Uncle Jesse would trust his
boy on such a long trip.
" Are n't you afraid he '11 get into trouble on the way ? "
"Oh, no," replied the proud sire; "he '11 take care of
himself."
To understand to the full the resolution and good judg
ment required on this trip of several hundred miles, it
must be remembered that in 1835 there were few pikes or
bridges, and the streams were much deeper to ford than
now. Jesse often sent his son to make collections or to
transact important business. The boy certainly did not
lack for employment, and yet, in the midst of teaming,
grinding bark, and going to school, he found time to have
a little fun.
It was a good boy's country. It produced not merely
great trees, and corn, and wheat: it produced pawpaws,
and grapes, and May-apples, and blackberries, and hickory-
nuts, and beechnuts, and all kinds of forage for boys.
These things, in due season, they plucked and hoarded, in
BOY LIFE IN GEORGETOWN 15
the alert seriousness of squirrels or young savages. Ulysses
was often of these parties, and in winter many pleasant
evenings were spent before the hearth, cracking nuts, in
company with the White or Marshall boys. He could
swim well, but was a poor fisherman ; he could play ball
fairly well, and he could ride standing on one foot upon the
back of a galloping horse. In winter-time he was a dar
ing and much-admired coaster down the steep street
which fell away sharply from the square and ran past the
tan-yard and the Grant homestead. It is a fine country
to coast in, with many long, curving slopes of road running
under magnificent trees, and past clumps of brush, and
over bridges.
He was a great favorite with the girls, though he was
not a demonstrative lover. He was kind and considerate
of them, never rude and boisterous, and never derisive.
" He was one of the few boys who had a team and sleigh
at their disposal, and he took the girls a-sleighing," sitting
silently in the midst of their shrieking and chatter. He
never teased children younger than himself, or tortured
animals. So runs the testimony of the women who knew
him as a boy. He had the effect always of being a good
listener, and was counted good company, though never an
entertainer. " He was more like a grown person than a boy. "
He was at fifteen a good-looking boy, with a large
head, strong, straight nose, quiet gray-blue eyes, and flexi
ble lips. He was short and sturdy, with fine hands and
feet. " He was not a brilliant boy, but he was a good
boy," " a refined boy," " the soul of honor." " He never
swore or used vulgar words, and he was notably consider
ate and unselfish." There is little record of his fighting.
Of his education in Georgetown little can be said. He
had been schooled of nature and by work and play, but
up to his fourteenth year he had attended only the
winter session of John D. White's subscription school,*
* The following dunning letter would seem to indicate that there were those
who could not, or would not, pay, even in " truck " :
DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE, March 5, 1829.
DEAR SIR: Justice to myself and family compels me to make out my
accompts and endeavor to collect them. I hope you will not be offended at
my sending you this scribble, for I have not time to run about and make
16 LIFE OF GRANT
which "took up" in a long low brick building standing
on a knoll to the south of the town. Schools in country
towns of that day were not taken very seriously by most
of the citizens. To be able to read and write and cipher
was considered very fair attainment. There were those,
it is true, who wished their sons and daughters to study
Lindley Murray and higher mathematics, but such ambi
tions were considered of questionable virtue. Ulysses
was a quiet boy at school. " He never whispered or
spoke in a low voice as if afraid to be heard."
He won the admiration of his classmates in drawing.
" He could draw a horse and put a man on him."
He was strong also in mathematics — would not let his
classmates show him the way to do problems, but always
wanted to work them out himself. A certain wordless
ness and lack of dash, together with a peculiar guile-
lessness, drew upon him the ridicule of the rude. His
language was so simple and bare of all slang and profanity
that it seemed poor and weak to his comrades. He
suffered a certain persecution during all his days in
Georgetown.
collections. If I have got anything of you that I have not booked I am will
ing to settle for it.
You have paid me as follows :
In cash $2. oo
214 pounds beef at 2 cts 4.28
One bushel corn 25
Flour 50
Pork 50
2 baskets corn i6f
My acpt. for 1826 is $7-35!
for 1827 8.00
for 1828 4.22^
$19.58^ This is for the time
7.69!- you sent, and not ac-
cording to your sub-
Balance due $i 1.88^ scription.
Yours, etc., in haste,
JOHN D. WHITE.
CHAPTER III
ULYSSES GOES TO BOARDING-SCHOOL
JESSE GRANT was a close reckoner in ordinary deal
ings, but he was more liberal with his son than most
fathers of the village ; and the winter that Ulysses was
fourteen he sent him to school in Maysville, a larger town
just across the river, in Kentucky, fifteen or twenty miles
from Georgetown. This was done in the hope that
something a little better might be had in the way of
schooling.
No doubt the boy gladly accepted the opportunity, for
Maysville was a city to him, and, besides, there were the
steamboats, the beautiful river, and the wharves with
their daily passenger and freight traffic. It was an old
town, filled with houses of the old English type, such as
Boston and Baltimore have in their older streets. It was
a straggling town, extending along the sloping bank
between the river and the bluffs behind. It was on slave
soil, but it was not without its antislavery element even
at that day. Jesse Grant, it is said, helped to found the
first abolition society in Kentucky, in 1823.
It was a finer place for a boy's life than Georgetown.
There were boating, swimming, and fishing in summer,
and beautiful skating and superb coasting in winter. Qf
his life in Maysville we know little; but his old teacher
and some of his classmates remember him well as a
very quiet, pleasant boy. The vicious side of life never,
seemed to attract him, and he did nothing to set himself
distinctively above or below his fellows. Richeson, his
teacher, was a college-bred man of liberal tastes, and his
17
l8 LIFE OF GRANT
methods as a teacher were peculiar and original. He
made a strong and gracious impression on young Grant,
who " ranked high in all his classes, and his deportment
was exceptionally good."
While attending the Maysville Seminary Ulysses
boarded with the family of his uncle, Peter Grant, who
was largely engaged in the salt trade.
An old book containing the records of the Philoma-
thean Society of Maysville, Kentucky, has something
recorded of young Grant. Apparently he entered the
club for the first time at its thirty-third meeting, January
3, 1837, and took a prominent part at once. By a
curious coincidence, the question for this first evening was,
" Resolved, That the Texans were not justifiable in giving
Santa Ana his liberty." In the names of the debaters this
night there appears on the record " H. U. Grant." He
was on the affirmative side. He was on the affirmative side
at the thirty-fourth meeting, with this question, " Re
solved, That females wield greater influence in society
than males." The affirmative side won in this case as
well as in the other. At the thirty-fifth meeting his name
appears on the affirmative of the question (a very vital
one at that time), "Resolved, That it would not be just
and politic to liberate the slaves at this time." Again he
was on the winning side.
At the thirty-sixth meeting the name appears " U.
Grant" on the affirmative side of the resolution, "That
intemperance is a greater evil than war."
At the thirty-seventh meeting "Mr. Grant" submitted
the following resolution : " Resolved, That it be considered
out of order for any member to speak on the opposite
side to which he is placed." On this same evening he
was elected, together with his friends A. H. Markland
and W. Richeson, as a member of the committee. He
also took part in the debate on the question, " Resolved,
That Socrates was right in not escaping when the prison
doors were opened to him." He took the affirmative, and
it was again the successful side.
At the thirty-eighth meeting Ulysses Grant and E. M.
Richeson were appointed to declaim at the next meeting.
ULYSSES GOES TO BOARDING-SCHOOL 19
He was again on the affirmative side of the debate on the
question, " Resolved, That the writer deserves more praise
than the orator."
At the thirty-ninth meeting we find this significant
line : " First declaim by E. M. Richeson ; second, the roll
being called, U. Grant was found to be absent." His
name appears, however, on the negative side of the ques
tion, "That the writer deserves more praise than the
orator."
His name appears once more on the question, " Resolved,
That Columbus deserves more praise for discovering
America than Washington did for defending it." He took
the negative side of this question.
He was on the negative side, at the forty-second meet
ing, on the question, " Resolved, That America can boast of
as great men as any other nation," March 27, 1837.
Grant's name does not appear in the records of the
debating society after March, 1837; the probabilities are
that he returned home to put in the crop.
There was a fine flavor about this society. It had a
Latin motto, and debated the most weighty questions
that the world has ever grappled with. It would seem
from its record that Grant was a willing debater, but that
he would rather pay six and a quarter cents fine than
declaim. He was prominent in nine meetings, and, so far
as we know, was an active member.
However, his was not a nature that showed its hidden
powers early, and he returned to Georgetown the next
spring, not very much changed in looks or habit. He
remained in Georgetown during the ensuing year, sharing
the life and amusements of its best young people attend
ing the village school in the winter.
Of indoor amusements there were few. The better
class of people in the village took a serious, if not somber,
view of life. Dancing was prohibited ; the fiddle was
seldom heard. There were no musical instruments, and
little singing, save of wailing hymns and droning psalms.
As the walls were bare of ornament, so the souls of these
people were without color of art or charm of poesy.
Intelligence they had, and probity and power, but not
20 LIFE OF GRANT
grace. However, each year liberalized them appreciably,
and the usual rustic social pleasures — bussing-bees, pars
ing-bees, spelling-bees, and the like — came in.
Books were almost unknown, except volumes of ser
mons or religious essays. The school-books of the day
were the English Reader, the Columbian Orator, Comstock's
Philosophy, and Comstock's Arithmetic. The readers
were filled with strenuously ethical essays, and tremen
dously bombastic orations, and very dry blank verse. It
was all very far removed from southern Ohio colloquial
isms. On the bureau of the Grant sitting-room, it is re
membered, there stood a little cabinet containing possibly
thirty books. What these were there is no tradition to
tell. Presumably they were not of fine literature,* though
Jesse Grant was naturally a lover of reading. Such books
as came his way he read with care.
He attended the Methodist Church, though hardly so
devo ed in his religious life as his wife. Neither of them,
however, could in their hearts completely sanction the
barbarisms of the church of that day, which allowed of
"shouting" and "frenzy." The "jerks" and " falling". were
common when sinners were "smit by the Lord Almighty's
power." Religion was not merely serious, it was tragic, in
those days; the shadow of the Reformation still hung
above it. " Hannah Grant was deeply religious, but very
tolerant." She never interfered with any rational and
proper amusement of her children.
Ulysses, being a healthy-minded boy, recoiled from
the frenzy of the " revival," and there is no evidence that
it made any other impression upon him than one of fear
or astonishment. His mother's gentle creed and spotless
life, however, he felt ineffaceably. There is no record
that either father or mother ever used any strong effort to
induce him to join the church, though they insisted on
his recognition of the Sabbath. His home life was pleas
ant. " I never received a harsh word or suffered an unjust
* One of these was probably the famous old Weems " Life of Washing
ton," for Jesse Grant speaks of Ulysses reading the " Life of Washington "
at about seven years of age. The lad was not much of a reader, however.
" He cared more for horses than for books."
ULYSSES GOES TO BOARDING-SCHOOL 21
act from my father or mother," he once said; and it is a
good deal to say of any parents.
His sixteenth year was spent at home in Georgetown,
beloved by his playmates, and happy in his activity with
team and plow. His only bugbear was the beam-room,
where the reeking hides are stretched and scraped. It
is a repulsive place to a sensitive person, and Ulysses
expected to be called soon to take his place there. He
was growing toward a man's capacities, — indeed, he was
more capable than most men already, — and the grim-lipped
father was pondering upon the son's future. This Ulysses
saw, but waited, as was his habit, for the other person to
speak.
One day they were short of hands in the tannery, and
Jesse said :
" Ulysses, you '11 have to go into the beam-room and
help me to-day."
Ulysses reluctantly followed, for thus far he had es
caped that work. As he walked beside his father he said :
" Father, this tanning is not the kind of work I like.
I '11 work at it, though," he sturdily added, " if you wish
me to, until I am twenty-one ; but you may depend upon
it, I '11 never work a day longer at it after that."
Jesse Grant, being a reasonable man, immediately
replied :
" My son, I don't want you to work at it now, if you
don't like it, and don't mean to stick to it. I want you to
work at whatever you like and intend to follow. Now,
what do you think you would like?"
" I 'd like to be a farmer, or a down-the-river trader, or
get an education." He put the education last, in his mod
est way.
The little farm on which Ulysses had been working in
years past was rented out, and down-the-river trading
hardly pleased the father, and times being very close, he
did n't see how he could send the boy away to school.
He thought of West Point, and said :
"How would you like West Point? You know, the
education is free there, and the government supports the
cadets. How would you like to go there ? "
22 LIFE OF GRANT
" First-rate," Ulysses promptly replied.*
His life thus far had been such as makes a boy older
than his years, but it had not given him much in way of
preparation for West Point, and it is probable that he did
not really imagine himself a successful candidate for the
appointment. He said little about the plan, for he had
suffered too keenly from the ridicule of his playmates,
who made a never-ending mock of his father's prophecy
of his son's future greatness. There seems no doubt of
this, though he never alluded to it.f Undoubtedly this
constant derision added to his reticence and apparent
dullness.
Even at fifteen years of age he had a superstition that
to retreat was fatal. When he set hand to any plan, or
started upon any journey, he felt the necessity of going
to the turn of the lane or to the end of the furrow. He
was resolute and unafraid always, a boy to be trusted
and counted upon — sturdy, capable of hard knocks.
What he was in speech he was in grain. If he said, " I
can do that," he not merely meant that he would try to
do it, but also that he had thought his way to the suc
cessful end of the task. He was, in fact, an unusually
determined and resourceful boy, as the stories of his neigh
bors show. Some of the good people of Georgetown,
Ripley, and Batavia, however, went far in their attempt
to show how very ordinary Ulysses Grant was. One
measure of greatness they always had in these small
towns — oratory, "gab." If a man was able to make a
speech he became at once a man of mark. If a boy could
declaim or debate well he was called brilliant ; conversely,
one who could not was " ordinary."
In the small minds of envious people, a boy of thirteen
who could drive a team six hundred miles across country,
and arrive safely ; who could load a wagon with heavy logs
by his own mechanical ingenuity ; who insisted on solving
^•i!
* From a letter written to the New York "Ledger" by Jesse Grant in 1868.
This does not agree with the account in the " Memoirs " of U. S. Grant, but it
seems a very natural decision on the boy's part.
t This ridicule is alluded to by W. T. Galbreath, Chilton White, Nelson Water
man, O. Eadwards, and other citizens of Brown County.
ULYSSES GOES TO BOARDING-SCHOOL 23
all mathematical problems himself; who never whispered,
or lied, or swore, or quarreled ; who could train a horse to
pace or trot at will ; who stood squarely upon his own
knowledge of things, without resorting to trick or mere
memory — such a boy was stupid, dull, and commonplace.
That Ulysses was not showy or easily valued as a talker
was true. His unusualness was in the balance of his
character, in his poise, his native judgment, and in his
knowledge of things at first hand.
CHAPTER IV
ULYSSES ENTERS WEST POINT ACADEMSf
TO go to West Point was a great distinction in 1839,
especially to the son of a Western tanner. It meant,
supposedly, association with brilliant young men from all
over the United States, assembled in a historic and most
beautiful spot. It meant a free education in a good
school, and also an honorable position under the govern
ment after graduation. Jesse Grant had in him the military
heart of Captain Noah Grant. His strong, alert, aggres
sive nature assorted well with military affairs. Whether
he intended that Ulysses should be educated for a soldier,
however, is in doubt; perhaps the distinction of having
his son appointed was secondary only to his feeling that
the four years' schooling was to be free.
Having decided upon the plan, however, he set to
work to carry it out. The outlook was not, at the
moment, promising. The congressional appointment was
filled, and even if it had not been, he no longer felt
assured of aid ; for a year or two before he had fallen into
violent discussion of the banking question with his friend
and neighbor, the Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, congressman
from Brown County. They had succeeded in saying
bitter things, and had parted in anger ; and they were no
longer in correspondence, and did not shake hands when
they met on the street,* though secretly each felt for the
other the same high regard, and Mr. Hamer loved Ulysses
as if he were a son, and held Hannah Grant in high esteem
as a most noble and capable woman.
During this estrangement Mr. Hamer appointed to the
* "Memoirs."
24
ULYSSES ENTERS WEST POINT ACADEMY 2$
cadetship George Bartlett Bailey, a son of Dr. Bailey,
who lived just across the street, and whose family was
very intimate with the Grant household. The Bailey
children used to lighten the labors of the Grant boys at
the bark-mill, and the girls of the two families were daily
playmates.
Bart, as he was called, was a brilliant boy in all ways —
quite the opposite of Ulysses. He could talk, he recited
happily, and was considered just the proper youth to be
sent to West Point ; and his appointment was heartily ap
plauded in the village. He was about the age of Ulysses.
The records of his career are very brief.
According to the adjutant's books, he reported at the
academy in July, 1837. In February, 1838, he resigned,
and entered a private school for a year's further prepara
tion. In July, 1838, he was reappointed, and registered.
In February, 1839, he again resigned, and no reason
appears. So far as the records show, he passed both
January examinations, and struggled hard, apparently, to
remain. In some mysterious way he failed — probably
because he detested the strict life and hard drill of the
barracks. This much is certain : he made way for Ulysses
Grant. "It was to be" the old adjutant's clerk said, with
a mystic gleam in his eye.
Young Bailey's secret resignation was not known in
Georgetown at the time. He had not returned, and the
family felt that the boy would be misunderstood, and had
been at pains to keep the news from their neighbors. Mr.
Grant, not being in communication with Congressman
Hamer, supposed the place still filled. However, knowing
that each senator also had the power to appoint a cadet,
the determined father wrote to United States Senator
Thomas Morris of Ohio, asking if he had a vacancy in his
appointment.
Senator Morris replied : " I have not. There being no
application for the cadetship, I waived my right to appoint
in favor of a member of Congress from Pennsylvania. But
there is a vacancy in your own district, and doubtless Mr.
Hamer, your representative, will fill it with your son,"*
* Richardson's " Life of Grant."
26 LIFE OF GRANT
This was news to Grant, and he immediately wrote to
Mr. Hamer a polite and dignified letter : *
GEORGETOWN, February 19, 1839.
To HON. THOMAS L. HAMER.
DEAR SIR: In consequence of a remark from Mr. Morris
(senator from Ohio), I was induced to apply to the War De
partment, through him, for a cadet appointment for my son, H.
Ulysses. A letter this morning received from the department
informs me that your consent will be necessary to enable him to
obtain the appointment. I have thought it advisable to consult
you on the subject, and if you have no other person in view for
the appointment, and feel willing to consent to the appointment
of Ulysses, you will please signify that consent to the department.
When I last wrote to Mr. Morris I referred him to you to recom
mend the young man, if that were necessary.
Respectfully yours,
JESSE R. GRANT.
(See recommendations.)
Mr. Hamer generously did not allow the trouble
between himself and Mr. Grant to interfere with the
future of Ulysses, whom he thoroughly believed in. He
promptly gave his indorsement, and Ulysses was ap
pointed. It is pleasant to add that by this manly act the
Hamers and Grants were reunited. It may also be re
marked here that Jesse Grant was a remarkably fine
letter-writer for those days. His letters are models of
neatness and legibility, and not a little subtlety of expres
sion is in them.
It is the tradition in Georgetown that when the news
of Ulysses Grant's appointment came, the people were
amazed. Some laughed, but others were indignant that
such a clodpoll should be sent to be educated by the
government. One man, meeting Mr. Grant on the street,
said:
" I hear Ulysses is appointed to West Point. Is that so ? "
"Yes, sir."
* This letter, hitherto unpublished, and one which Ulysses Grant saved,
is valuable for several things. It fixes the boy's name, and the method
of appointment. This letter is now in possession of the Hamer family.
The Grants were unaware of its existence at the time the " Memoirs" ap
peared.
ULYSSES ENTERS WEST POINT ACADEMY 27
" Well, that 's a nice job ! Why did n't they appoint a
boy that would be a credit to the district? " *
There were many others who voiced the same feeling,
though they had the grace not to snarl in the presence of
the father. Ulysses doubtless agreed with them that it
was a mistake, — he had no extravagant opinion of him
self at anytime, — but he faced the issue. He wanted to
go, and he did not. The honor came with certain obvi
ous disadvantages. One of these was home-leaving. He
loved his home. He was the most unmilitary of boys in
a military age. The story of his grandfather's battles,
sieges, and marches had seemingly made little impression
upon him. The " trainings " and " general muster " of the
militia had interested him rather less than the infrequent
circuses of the day. He had small love for guns, could-
not bear to see things killed, and was neither a hunter nor
a fighter. The people could not be much blamed for
their feeling of resentment. To any one but the father
and mother it seemed very much like a waste of govern
ment privileges.
When the news of his appointment came Ulysses was
living in Ripley. He had entered a special school, an
academy, which was superintended by the Rev. William
Taylor. It afforded the best instruction in the county,
and was as good a school, undoubtedly, as could be found
in any of the surrounding towns.
Sixty years is a long time to keep distinctly in memory
the form and face of another, but several of Grant's class
mates still live in Ripley, and remember him very well.f
And the reports upon Ulysses' character are much more
gracious than those of Georgetown,
" Lys, or Lyssus, as we called him, boarded with R. M.
Johnson, a tanner, whom Jesse Grant knew by way of
business dealings. He was then about sixteen years old,
and in appearance was short, stout, stubby, and hearty, but
rather sluggish in mind and body. I was in the same class
* This statement, made by Richardson, is corroborated by people in Rip-
ley and Georgetown. It is all quite natural, and probably true.
t I am indebted to Mr. Chambers Baird of Ripley for notes and letters
bearing on Grant's life in Ripley.
28 LIFE OF GRANT
with him. We studied algebra together. He was excellent
in mathematics. We studied Latin also, as beginners. He
was not much of a talker — was rather quiet and serious.
We all spent a good deal of time on the river in little
boats. He played ball, and was good at it. When roused,
was strong and active. He used to wrestle some, but I
never knew him to fight, and he was never quarrelsome.
" His habits were good. I don't remember of his using
tobacco or liquor. He never talked about military life.
He never went on trips or excursions with us, except in
our boating or skating ; he was occupied with his studies.
Everybody liked him, for he was so amiable and friendly
and helpful. He was a good student, though we did
not consider him a brilliant boy in studies.
" Our text-books were the English Reader and its
Sequel, Lindley Murray's Grammar, Haven's Speller
and Definer, Comstock's Philosophy. Then, we had a
geography with pictures of Indians and Chinese in it. I
don't remember the name of it. It was a queer little
book. Grant stood well in all his classes, but he was
specially good in mathematics."
Another classmate remembers him as a " heavy-made,
good-looking boy, clever and social, modest and quiet.
He was steady and studious. He was there for business.
I belonged to the boys who made things lively, but Grant
never took any hand in our mischief. He showed no
liking for military life, but just accepted his appointment,
and went to work preparing for it.
" I sat in the same seat with him the spring term. He
was a good, steady boy, with no bad habits. I never saw
him whipped or reprimanded."
To one of the girls of the school he looked " awkward
and countrified, and as if he did n't think much about how
he looked. He was quiet and slow in everything he did."
Another classmate adds a new observation to the
meager list : " He was a great hand to ask questions. I
think I have heard him ask a million. He seemed to
want to get information and opinions from everybody.
He said little himself, but he could answer questions, if you
gave him time." This significant comment explains much
ULYSSES ENTERS WEST POINT ACADEMY 29
of Grant's great fund of facts. He absorbed information
like a sponge.
" He was always dressed in home-made butternut jeans.
He nearly always carried a stick, and whittled most of his
time. If he stopped to talk with any one, he always
whittled on the stick he carried ; but he never made any
thing, like a great many boys do when they whittle."
Ripley seemed to Ulysses to be almost a city in com
parison with Georgetown, and the mental atmosphere of
the town was in sharp contrast. Georgetown was still
distinctly Southern in its political sentiment, while Ripley
was sharply Northern, even Puritan, in character. It was,
indeed, to become in a few years the most famous station
on the " underground railway " in all southern Ohio.
It was the scene of the escape of Eliza, the " Uncle Tom's
Cabin " heroine ; and the Rev. Rankin and his stalwart
sons formed a host in themselves when the slave-hunters
came trailing up the Ohio steeps, on whose summit the
Rankin homestead perched like a robber's roost, capable
of stern defense. That Ulysses was affected by these
surroundings there can be no doubt. In a letter to a
Ripley friend, long afterward, he said : " I remember with
pleasure my winter in Ripley."
He lived pleasantly as a member of the Johnson house
hold, and it is related of him that he taught Betty Osbon
the cook, how to make buckwheat cakes, and that he took
his " trick " at baking them of a morning. He was not in
the society of girls much, though he took a shy delight in
speech with them.
In such wise he was living when the appointment to
West Point came to change the gentle current of his life.
There is no record that he showed exultation, or that
he dwelt upon it in talk with his mates. He answered
their questions quietly, but volunteered little. With his
mother's impassive exterior he concealed the tremor of
his heart, and prepared for his journey into the world as
one would now go to arctic regions.
There is a whisper to be heard, also, of a little maid liv
ing in those days whose face and voice had come to be
very precious to Ulysses. This boyish love was of the
30 LIFE OF GRANT
sweetest and daintiest type — perhaps unspoken, on his
part, for he feared the ridicule of his friends, and espe
cially of his elders. It is only a tradition now — a faint
odor as of pressed roses and spice-pinks. No doubt, as
the time approached for saying good-by, he keenly felt
the sorrow of parting.
However, he saw in prospect a splendid ride up the
Ohio River in a steamboat, a trip over the mountains,
and, better than all, a visit to the far cities of New York
and Philadelphia, more splendid to him than his tongue
could tell ; and, finally, he knew the inflexible purpose of
his father ; therefore he set his face toward the East.
His life had been active and happy; he had lived
securely, though meagerly ; he had experienced no strug
gle nor turbulence in his life in Georgetown ; and while he
breathed quick with the thought of the great cities to be
seen, he left Georgetown with regret.
His mother said good-by in her singularly self-repres
sive manner, and Ulysses started out to take the stage to
Ripley. As he went by the Bailey house Mrs. Bailey and
her daughter came out to wish him good journey.
It was a beautiful May day, just the most bewitching time
of all the year in southern Ohio, and the girls met
Ulysses on the soft green grass before the house. Mrs.
Bailey, warm-hearted and impulsive, kissed him, and said
tearfully: "Good-by, Ulysses." As she turned away,
Ulysses, deeply moved, said wonderingly : " Why, Mrs.
Bailey, my own mother did n't cry! " Yet there can be
no question of his mother's love for him. And so he
started off, with an ache in his heart. Going to West
Point was not an unmixed delight.
It is at this moment that we come upon the change of
his name. Up to the start for West Point he had been
Hiram Ulysses, or H. Ulysses Grant. He had been called
" Useless " Grant because of his unusual middle name,
and "Hug" because of the initials H. U. G., and his
cousin, James Marshall, is an important witness right here.
The young traveler required a trunk, and Thomas Walker,
a local " genius," was the man to make it. He did so,
and, to finish it off, he traced on the cover, in big brass
ULYSSES ENTERS WEST POINT ACADEMY 3!
tacks, the initials H. U. G. Young Marshall went to help
Ulysses to carry the new trunk home. Ulysses looked at
the big glaring letters disapprovingly. " I won't have
that so," he said. "It spells 'hug.' The boys would
plague me about it." And he thereupon shifted his mid
dle name, and became Ulysses H. Grant, and so he went
forth into the world.
By his teaming and farming he had accumulated about
one hundred dollars, which was a great deal of money for
a boy of his age in those days, and he took 'a manly pride
in knowing that he had earned so much of his expenses.
Few boys of his age had done as well.
In those days the saddle was the emblem of speed, and
the canal-boat was tolerated as a passenger craft ; but to
the boy it was all equally wonderful. Of the long journey
by boat to Pittsburg, and by stage and canal to Philadel
phia, there is little record. An aunt on his mother's side,
in Philadelphia, remembers him as he then appeared. She
describes him as a rather awkward country lad, wearing
plain, ill-fitting clothes, and large coarse shoes with toes as
broad as the soles.
He strolled about the streets in the fashion of the rural
visitor, seeing all there was to be seen.* He enjoyed his
visit thoroughly, that is known ; for he lingered, boy-fash
ion, to the last moment in Philadelphia and New York,
and headed toward West Point only when he felt he must.
The ride up the Hudson f was one of the grandest experi
ences of his life. He felt the historical side of it very
strongly, as most Western boys do, and approached West
Point with a thrill of exultation in his heart. It seemed
to him one of nature's most tremendous upheavals — the
water-gap, the wide river, and the dark hills bulging
against the sky.
He registered at Roe's Hotel, on the 26th of May, as
" U. H. Grant/' and the next day reported to the adjutant,
* From an interview in the Philadelphia " Times," July, 1885.
t Probably
" On the proud steamer, long since gone awreck,
The R. L. Stevens, fleet as a balloon."
(From an old poem.)
32 LIFE OF GRANT
C. F. Smith, deposited forty-eight dollars, and signed his
name " Ulysses Hiram Grant." His name as reported from
Washington, however, was U. S. Grant, and arose in this
way : The Hon. Thomas Hamer received the letter of Jesse
Grant only the day before the close of his term, and being
much hurried, sat down at once and wrote to Secretary of
War Poinsett, asking for the appointment of his neigh
bor's son. He knew the boy's name to be Ulysses, and
inferring that his middle name was Simpson, filled in
the application so, and so it stood when Ulysses faced
the adjutant.
He asked to have it changed, but was told it was im
possible without the consent of the Secretary of War.
" Very well," he said ; " I came here to enter the Mili
tary Academy, and enter I shall. An initial more or less
does not matter."* He was known to the government
thereafter as U. S. Grant.
This being settled, he was given the " Book of Regu
lations," and sent across the area to the old South Barracks
to report to the cadet officers. As he went he was greeted
with derisive yells : " Does your mother know you 're
out ? " " Oh, what an animal ! " " Who is your tailor ? "
and other f witticisms. Missiles hurtled from the windows
when no one in authority was in sight.
At headquarters the cadet corporals took him in hand.
He was told that the first duty of a soldier was to stand
erect. He was ordered to throw out his chest and pull in
his belly, and to fix his eyes on a tack driven in the wall.
Then questions were asked — apparently harmless and quite
polite questions.
" Mr. Grant, what have you brought from home?"
Naturally he turned his head toward his questioner to
reply.
Fierce yells arose:
" Keep your eyes to the front, sir! " He was told that
* Richardson's " Life of Grant."
t " Crossing the plain from the North Barrack windows
Came boisterous shouts of welcome from within;
Sarcastic shrieks, as from a tribe of Mingoes,
Assailed our hero with infernal din."
fl
7 ' .
Facsimile showing Grant's autograph in the adjutant's record, West Point.
This signature, " Ulysses Hiram Grant," was written the same day as the one " U. H. Grant," in the register at Roe's Hotel,
May 29, 1839.
tf /&«
of £/t
Facsimile of Grant's certificate of enlistment.
This certificate was signed by Grant, September 14, 1839, after he had passed his examinations. It bears what is, so far as known,
Grant's earliest autograph as U. "S." Grant. By this time the mistake of Congressman Hamer in so naming him to the War
Department had fixed that as his official designation.
ULYSSES ENTERS WEST POINT ACADEMY 33
the next duty of a cadet was to keep his eyes to the front,
if the heavens fell. He was made to " fin out " ; that is,
to put his little fingers to the seams of his trousers, and to
turn his palms to the front. He was told, with withering
scorn, to " get a brace " on himself.
" Drag in your chin ! Draw in your belly ! Throw out
your chest ! Now, you are to put ' Mr.' before every name,
salute every officer, and do as you are told." His attention
was called to other regulations in the same manner.
After this exercise he was sent to the quartermaster for
his outfit, which consisted of two blankets, pillow, water-
pail, broom, a chair, etc. ; and he was required to carry all
these things himself, on the handle of his broom, past the
officers' quarters, past the howling cadets, while every
mother's son of them said :
" Hello, plebe; how do you like it?"
These belongings he was taught to pile and place in his
room, under instruction of his room-mates. For two weeks
he slept on the floor in the barracks, on two thin blankets.
It was all literally camping under a roof. Ulysses and
Rufus Ingalls were assigned to the upper floor of the old
North Barracks (which long since gave place to new
buildings) ; and here, in a bare, dreary room, he faced the
four years of a cadet's life. " It was a wonderful time for
us," says W. B. Franklin.* " We were all homesick and
lonesome, and depressed by the hard manner of life. We
knew no one, and were not in a condition to resent any
impertinence or joke of the upper classmen."
During this time he was drilled by " squad marches "
in plebe drill in city clothing, and suffered all modes of
" plebe jumping." He was forced to walk painfully
straight, to perform various athletic exercises, and other
wise to prepare to be a " conditional cadet."
During this time life was a burden and a weariness of the
flesh. At last, when he had passed his preliminary ex
amination, he shucked out of his home-made clothes and
into the skin-tight uniform,! and became a private soldier
* General W. B. Franklin, who led his class during the four years.
t " The clothes of the plebes in Grant's day were wonderful. They were
of all cuts, colors, and kinds. They came with the local peculiarities of Ohio,
34 LIFE OF GRANT
in the summer camp of the cadets. He went into train
ing as a cog in the machinery of an army.
The entering class and the bulk of all the cadets were
ranked as private soldiers with the pay of corporals. From
the first or graduating class the commissioned officers were
appointed, and consisted of four captains, sixteen lieuten
ants, a quartermaster, and a sergeant-major. These men
were subject only to the instructors and to the regular
army officers in charge. Promotions were made without
reference to academic standing ; they were always for sol
dierly qualities. From the dullest plebe to the superin
tendent of the post was a regular series of commands, each
succeeding higher rank with less numbers, until, like the
glittering apex to the pyramid, the superintendent shone
solitary and supreme.
Tennessee, Maine, South Carolina, and Boston ; and when we lined up in
squad drill we were as comical as the awkward squad at a spring training.
We were not measured for uniforms till the authorities felt sure we were to
stay."— GENERAL FRANKLIN.
CHAPTER V
THE TRIALS OF A PLEBE
FROM the democracy of small villages in the West, or
from farms in the East, boys of seventeen or eighteen
were brought face to face with this grim military despo
tism. It was a shock. Even at this time had grown up
customs and traditions stronger than military regulations.
In a half-jocular and half-ferocious way Grant was
made to feel the power of those above him. The names
by which he was designated show this. He was called a
" thing," a " beast," an " animal," before his examinations.
" Plebe " was his kingliest title during his first year. From
the time he came in sight of the adjutant's office to the
end of his first encampment he was not allowed to forget
that he cumbered the earth. He was the victim of orders,
of jests, of hootings, and of revilings. He was under com-
mand of everybody, and, like a wastrel cat, had no place
of refuge.
When Ulysses shed his citizen's clothes, and got into
the tight-fitting jacket and trousers, he felt that he had
been stripped naked, with all his imperfection of limb and
bust open to inspection and derision. He was forced to
" brace " and " fin out " and salute " eyes front " every
time he faced an officer or the upper-classmen. This
absurd and painful contortion of body made him feel like
a trussed turkey, and took all joy out of life. He was put
through ridiculous actions at plebe drill.
He was ordered into the rear rank when marching to
and from meals, and the file-closer accosted him in a
low snarl: " Get into line there, Mr. Grant! Watch out,
35
36 LIFE OF GRANT
there! I '11 skin you if I see you do that again." Com
mands were hurled at him with all the venom (real or as
sumed) of piratical imprecation. No one quite laid hands
upon him, and no one actually blasphemed, but the tone
in which he was addressed was charged with the most
desolating hate (apparently) which the human heart could
conceive.
The summer camp of cadets was precisely like an
army camp in the face of an enemy. It was an army in
miniature.
A complete guard was posted, and no one was allowed
to leave camp without a permit. Everywhere was elabo
rate and grim detail of procedure — detail enough to gov
ern the army of Russia or destroy it. Grant and his fel
low " animals " were at once bewildered by the salutes
innumerable, the wheelings, marchings, roll-calls, policing
calls, shouts of command real and mock. They were
hustled into ranks with opprobrious mutterings of com
ment on the part of the corporals, whose delight was to
send a man to the guard-house.
They slept little the first night. The floor of the tent was
hard, — harder even than the floor of the barracks,— and
the mosquitos fed on each plebe with the spirit of the
upper-classmen. Hardly had they fallen asleep when the
vicious clamor of the reveille broke forth. Wild, fierce
cries arose : " Fall in ! Get out of here ! Move ! What
d' ye mean by that? Step lively, now! Fall in! "
Thus assisted, they got into line for roll-call, with
jackets fairly on, but with dreaming eyes. All about, the
fog and chill of early dawn made the world unreal. Then
the policing call brought more work, sweeping out and
making ready for morning inspection. Ulysses kept a
sharp eye on his neighbors, and so got through tolerably
well, though once some one yelled ferociously :
"You want to wake up there, Mr. Grant! "
When the sick-call sounded, many a man felt like re
sponding who did not.
Then came " peas upon a trencher " call, and every
body formed into line for breakfast, the plebes in the
rear rank, of course, with palms thrown forward and
THE TRIALS OF A PLEBE 37
backs strained almost to breaking, the file-closer insulting
them as they moved.
Breakfast was as simple as a lumber-camp meal. The
dining-hall was bare and the tables without cover. There
were no napkins, and only common steel knives and forks,
and the cups were heavy as bowls.* The fare was very
bad, and the poor plebes " were assigned seats near the
center, where it was hardest to get anything," and they
commonly went away hungry from " hash," which was the
morning dish. Sentinels in tall leather caps stood about
the room while the rest ate.
At last came the call:
" Company A, rise."
" Company D, rise."
Once more the torture of the march back to the camp,
whence no one could escape without permission. Each
hour thereafter was filled with " calls " to duties, drills,
and studies. There seemed to be no free hour. Mock
* " The fare was very bad. West Point at that time was isolated from
the world. It had no railways, and in winter no steamboats. There were,
in fact, no farms very near. Breakfast was quite generally hashed beef, with
coffee. Dinner, roast beef or boiled beef, with sometimes fish or mutton.
Mutton was not a popular dish. We used to ' baa' like a sheep when we
came into the dining-room. I think we had a table-cover, but I am not cer
tain. Of this I am certain : our forks were of the two-tined, bone-handled
variety, and from long washing in hot, greasy water they had decomposed,
and they gave a horrible smell which no old cadet can forget as long as he
lives. It was horrible. ' Tea ' was largely tea, and very little besides, and
the boys used to provide for it by sticking a fork into a big hunk of beef from
the dinner and jabbing it fast under the table. This, when unperceived by
the 'tack,' helped out the starvation form of 'tea.'
" This thin fare led to all sorts of ' foraging on the enemy,' and men were
detailed to steal from the dinner-table. We wore caps of morocco with a
big flat top. We called them ' gig-tups,' and they held potatoes and salt
cellars and bread very comfortably. One man was detailed to steal bread,
another meat, another salt and pepper, and so on. The sentinels who stood
guard over our eating wore a sort of bell-crown cap of stiff leather, like
those of Napoleon's body-guard ; and these caps could contain four quarts of
boiled potatoes, and only add to the soldierly bearing of the sentinel.
" This stuff we put into a pillow-case, and at night we beat it up with a
bayonet, and cooked it over the grate, which was of anthracite coal and quite
handy. Our dishes were slices of bread or toast. These were ' cadet hashes,'
and were an institution in our day. No man, no cadet officer, in fact, was
ever known to refuse an invitation to a cadet hash. I don't particularly recall
Grant in this connection, but as he was a farmer boy, and a growing boy,
I 've no doubt he accepted every possible chance to eat cadet hash." —
W. B. FRANKLIN.
38 LIFE OF GRANT
inspectors came by and rated the plebes. Third-class
men, assuming authority, demanded salutes and service.
Innocent and scared plebes were sent to the professor of
mathematics for a half-dozen right lines, and on other fool's
errands across the guard-line, only to be stopped and
turned back with military promptness by the guard. They
forgot to salute the officer of the day as he came by, and
received more heart-bruising instruction.
They were drilled incessantly by acting corporals
ambitious for promotion, who thrust their noses almost
into their victims' eyes, while they hissed and snarled out
blasting phrases whose words were harmless, even polite.
At morning inspection each scared plebe had his musket
clawed from him by a stubby little martinet, who flung it
back at his victim with intent (apparently) to smash his
nose.
"Where 's your bone-snapper, Mr. Grant? I '11 skin
you for having that flint in. You want to peel your eye.
What do you think this is — a picnic? "
At noon roast-beef call, and more marching to dinner
and marching back. More drill — always drill, and always
cleaning up tent or gun. His clothes fitted so close he
felt compressed ; he had no moment of ease in all the day.
At last retreat sounded, and the gun boomed imperiously,
and supper, even more welcome than dinner, was eaten.
The night came, and sly deviltry broke loose.
Some plebes escaped by inconspicuousness, but others
were made to do absurd and useless tasks. Some were
put on false guard, and made to walk all night. Deviling
went on in the tents farthest from the officer of the day —
quietly, of course, but with precision, nevertheless. Plebes
were set to catching imaginary flies in some yearling's
tent. Boat-races in wash-bowls were arranged.
At 9:30 came the wailing, sweet music of tattoo and
taps, and not even the mosquitos and the yearling or the
hard boards beneath could keep the weary plebe awake.
" There are few compensations during the first year ;
it is hard work, early rising, close application. You rise
at 5 A. M. summers and 6 A. M. winters, and every hour
View up the Hudson River from mortar- and siege-battery, West Point.
From a photograph by Pack Brothers, New York.
A " plebe " boat-race, West Point.
From a photograph loaned by Lieutenant S. C. Hazzard, West Point.
THE TRIALS OF A PLEBE 39
is filled till 7 : 30 P. M. You are obliged to scrub the floor
and to make up your own bed, and keep your gun and
room and uniform in perfect order, and also to be subject
to the upper-classmen.
" In the second year, however, you can bully the en
tering class, and swagger around doing corporal duty ; the
third year you can bully two classes, and wear a red sash
around your waist in parade to show you are a senior
cadet officer; and in the fourth year you can do 'most
anything you please — you can, in fact, do the very things
you kept your subordinates from doing in the second year.
" When you were a plebe you were obliged to stand up
before the amanuensis like a trussed turkey with a towel
under your wing, while he parboiled you for daring to be
on earth at all — much more for asking leave to take a
bath ; and you were obliged to dissemble, and say with
marvelous meekness, ' Yes, sir,' ' No, sir,' to his nobs, who
sprawled at ease before his time-book. You were the fag-
end of things — a loathsome ' beast.' But as a yearling
these things changed."
All this, or something like it, Ulysses Grant went
through. No doubt he was able to escape much by reason
of his quiet and obliging nature. Then, too, he speedily
became a favorite of some of the more powerful men in
the classes above him, and that smoothed his way a little.
But he studied the tack, braced, finned out, policed camp,
scrubbed floors on Saturday, was " skinned " for leaving
the flint in his gun instead of the " bone-snapper," and
endured all the educational abuse and discomfort which is
the lot of the average plebe.
In a letter to McKinstry Griffiths, a cousin in Batavia,
he expressed his general feeling about the place — a fine,
buoyant, well-expressed letter it is, too. It had a few
misspelled words, but it is doubtful whether there were
many more young men of seventeen in Georgetown who
could have written so bright a letter.*
* The original was long in the possession of Mr. Griffiths, and was first
published in a Clermont County paper in 1885. It is now in the possession
of C. F. Gunther.
40 LIFE OF GRANT
MILITARY ACADEMY, WEST POINT, N, Y.,
September 22, 1839.
DEAR Coz : I was just thinking that you would be right glad
to hear from one of your relations who is so far away as I am.
So I have put away my algebra and French, and am going to
tell you a long story about this prettiest of places, West Point.
So far as it regards natural attractions it is decidedly the most
beautiful place that I have ever seen. Here are hills and dales,
rocks and river; all pleasant to look upon. From the window
near I can see the Hudson — that far-famed, that beautiful river,
with its bosom studded with hundreds of snowy sails.
Again, I look another way I can see Fort Putt, now frowning
far above, a stern monument of a sterner age, which seems placed
there on purpose to tell us of the glorious deeds of our fathers,
and to bid us to remember their sufferings— to follow their ex
ample.
In short, this is the best of places — the PLACE of all PLACES
for an institution like this. I have not told you HALF its attrac
tions. Here is the house Washington used to live in — there
Kosisuscko used to walk and think of HIS country and of OURS.
Over the river we are shown the dwelling-house of Arnold— that
BASE and HEARTLESS traitor to his country and his God. I do
love the PLACE — it seems as though I could live here forever, if
my friends would only come too. You might search the wide
world over and then not find a better. Now all this sounds nice,
very nice ; what a happy fellow you are, but I am not one to
show false colors, or the brightest side of the picture, so I will
tell you about some of the DRAWBACKS. First, I slept for two
months upon one single pair of blankets. Now this sounds
romantic, and you may think it very easy ; but I tell you what,
Coz, it is tremendous hard.
Suppose you try it, by way of experiment, for a night or two.
I am pretty sure that you would be perfectly satisfied that it is
no easy matter; but glad am I these things are over. We are
now in our quarters. I have a splendid bed (mattress) and get
along very well. Our pay is nominally about twenty-eight dol
lars a month, but we never see one cent of it. If we wish any
thing, from a shoe-string to a coat, we must go to the comman
dant of the post and get an order for it, or we cannot have it.
We have tremendous long and hard lessons to get, in both French
and algebra. I study hard and hope to get along so as to pass
the examination in January. This examination is a hard one,
they say ; but I am not frightened yet. If I am successful here
you will not see me for two long years. It seems a long while
THE TRIALS OF A PLEBE 41
to me, but time passes off very fast. It seems but a few days
since I came here. It is because every hour has its duty, which
must be performed. On the whole I like the place very much
— so much that I would not go away on any account. The fact
is, if a man graduates here, he is safe for life, let him go where
he will. There is much to dislike, but more to like. I mean to
study hard and stay if it be possible ; if I cannot, very well, the
world is wide. I have now been here about four months, and
have not seen a single familiar face or spoken to a single lady.
I wish some of the pretty girls of Bethel were here, just so 1
might look at them. But fudge! confound the girls. I have
seen great men, plenty of them. Let us see: General Scott,
Mr. Van Buren, Secretary of War and Navy, Washington Irving,
and lots of other big bugs. If I were to come home now with
my uniform on, the way you would laugh at my appearance
would be curious. My pants set as tight to my skin * as the bark
to tree, and if I do not walk military,— that is, if I bend over
quickly or run, — they are very apt to crack with a report as loud
as a pistol. My coat must always be buttoned up tight to the
chin. It is made of sheep's gray cloth, all covered with big round
buttons. It makes one look very singular. If you were to see
me at a distance, the first question you would ask would be, " Is
that a fish or an animal? " You must give my very best love
and respects to all my friends, particularly your brothers, uncles
Ross and Samuel Simpson. You must also write me a long let
ter in reply to this, and tell me about everything and everybody,
including yourself. If you happen to see any of my folks, just
tell them that I am happy, alive and well.
I am truly your cousin and obedient servant,
U. H. GRANT.
McKiN7STRY GRIFFITH.
N. B. In coming I stopped five days in Philadelphia with
our friends. They are all well. Tell Grandmother Simpson that
they always have expected to see her before, but have almost
given up the idea now. They hope to hear from her often.
U. H. GRANT.
I came near forgetting to tell you about our demerit or " black
marks." They give a man one of these " black marks " for
almost nothing, and if he gets two hundred a year they dismiss
him. To show how easy one can get these, a man by the name
of Grant, of this State, got eight of these " marks " for not going
* The trousers were poorly made of white stuff that would shrink,
42 LIFE OF GRANT
to church. He was also put under arrest so he cannot leave his
room perhaps for a month ; all this for not going to church. We
are not only obliged to go to church, but must march there by
companies. This is not republican. It is an Episcopal church.
Contrary to the expectation of you and the rest of my Bethel
friends, I have not been the least homesick. I would not go
home on any account whatever. When I come home in two
years (if I live), the way I shall astonish you natives will be
curious. I hope you will not take me for a baboon.
My best respects to Grandmother Simpson. I think often of
her. I put this on the margin so that you will remember it
better. I want you to show her this letter and all others that I
may write to you, to her. I am going to write to some of my
friends in Philadelphia soon. When they answer I shall write
you again to tell you all about them, etc.
Remember and write me very soon, for I want to hear much.
This frank, gossipy letter is a revelation of the real boy
behind his impassive mask of face. Whatever its faults, it
is not the letter of a dullard.
He was at once called " Sam " Grant. " I remember,
as plain as if it were yesterday, Grant's first appearance
among us," said Sherman. " I was three years ahead of
him. I remember seeing his name on the paper in the
hall on the bulletin-board, where all the names of the new
comers were posted. I ran my eye down the columns,
and there saw ' U. S. Grant.' A lot of us began to make
up names to fit the initials. One said ' United States
Grant.' Another ' Uncle Sam Grant.' A third said ' Sam
Grant.' That name stuck to him." (An interview in July,
1 885, New York "Herald.")
" He was a most unique-appearing youth," another
witness testified.*
He fell into ranks quietly and with little friction ; being
so equable and obliging of temper, no one but a bully
could find heart to impose upon him. He was small,
also, and there was little excitement in " jumping " such a
little fellow. He was a good boy here, as at home. He
took little part in the sly deviltry of the class.f
* Coppee, " Life of Grant."
t " It was impossible to quarrel with Grant," said one who roomed with
him for a year. " He never had a spat. I never knew him to fight."
THE TRIALS OF A PLEBE 43
A careful study of his page of demerits shows scarcely
a single mark for any real offense against good conduct.
His offenses are mainly " lates " and negligences. He was
'Mate at church," "late at parade," "late at drill." He
was a growing boy, and a little sluggish of a morning, no
doubt. Once he sat down on his post between five and
six in the morning; for this he received eight demerits.
Twice in his second year as squad marcher he failed to
report delinquencies in others, and received five demerits
each time. His amiability led to this. Once he spoke
disrespectfully to his superior officer on parade. The prov
ocation must have been very great to have led to this.
The probabilities are the officer was mistaken.
The life at the academy had this virtue — it was demo
cratic. All fared alike, so far as regulations could go.
The son of slaveholding parents from Virginia had the
same duties to perform as the tanner's son. " Each Satur
day it was down on your knees and scrub the floor. The
barracks were dismal, barn-like structures with bare floors
and very scanty furnishings. We had no servants at all.
We had to carry water, make up our own beds, etc. There
were no such luxuries as bath-rooms then. We had to
pump our own water, and carry it up-stairs, whenever we
found it necessary to take a bath.
" I remember Grant well. He was a small fellow,
active and muscular. His hair was a reddish brown, and
his eyes gray-blue. We all liked him, and he took rank
soon as a good mathematician and engineer, and as a
capital horseman. He had no bad habits whatever, and
was a great favorite, though not a brilliant fellow.
" He could n't, or would n't, dance. He had no facility
in conversation with the ladies, a total absence of ele
gance, and naturally showed off badly in contrast with
the young Southern men, who prided themselves on being
finished in the ways of the world." *
He belonged decidedly to the plebeian side of the class,
which was sharply divided on the line of elegance and
savoir-faire, notwithstanding the democracy of the mili
tary regulations. " Socially the Southern men led. At
* General D. M. Frost.
44 LIFE OF GRANT
the parties which were given occasionally in the dining-
hall Grant had small part. I never knew Grant to attend
a party. I don't suppose in all his first year he entered
a private house."
He was soon deeply immersed in certain of his studies.
" A military life had no charms for me," he wrote, many
years after,* " and I had not the faintest idea of staying in
the army, even if I should be graduated, which I did not
expect. The encampment which preceded the commence
ment of academic studies was very wearisome and unin
teresting. When the 28th of August came, the date for
breaking up camp and going into barracks, I felt as though
I had been at West Point always, and that if I stayed till
graduation I would have to remain always."
Undoubtedly the boy was homesick. Every wind that
blew from the west was a reminder of home. Every let
ter from his cousins, his companions, from his father and
mother, made him long for the little Ohio town. He had
no realization of its squalor, its narrow bigotry. He knew
only the boy's side of it. It was all poetry to him then.
Its security, repose, and homely good will seemed the most
desirable things in the world.
During this time, before he had settled into place among
his fellows, he read a great many novels of the standard
sort, and was much benefited thereby. He wrote some
capital letters home, telling of his life and reading. When
the examination came in January he surprised himself by
taking a very good place in the class, especially in mathe
matics and kindred studies. He was not a good linguist,
as might be inferred, but was not positively disreputable,
even in his French. He never quite reached the foot in
anything.
He was not resigned to being a soldier even after the
January examination ; and when, in the midwinter, a bill
was introduced in Congress to abolish the West Point
Academy, he read the debates with absorbed interest,
hoping it would be carried. " It never passed, and a year
later I would have been sorry to have seen it succeed. My
* " Personal Memoirs." This is the old man's comment. The boy's
letter should be set over against it.
THE TRIALS OF A PLEBE 4$
idea was then to get through the course, secure a detail
for a few years as assistant professor of mathematics at the
academy, and afterward obtain a permanent position in
some respectable college; but circumstances always did
shape my course different from my plans." * This was
his peaceful and modest day-dream, into which, no doubt,
some one of the young girls of Georgetown naturally
drifted.
He was not involved in any mischief at the academy,
and there is no record that he ever went to Benny Haven's,
though he may have done so. He was a good boy with
out being effeminate. The testimony of his companions —
Quinby, Ingalls, Hamilton, Longstreet, Franklin — is con
current at this point:
" He was a lad without guile. I never heard him utter
a profane or vulgar word. He was a boy of good native
ability, although by no means a hard student." f
" So perfect was his sense of honor that in the numer
ous cabals which were often formed his name was never
mentioned, for he never did anything which could be sub
ject for criticism or reproach. He soon became the most
daring horseman in the academy." J
He had a way of solving problems out of rule by the
application of good hard sense, and Rufus Ingalls ends by
saying : " When our school days were over, if the average
opinion of the members of the class had been taken, every
one would have said : ' There is Sam Grant ; he is a splen
did fellow, a good, honest man against whom nothing can
be said, and from whom everything may be expected.' '
One of the keenest observers in his class saw more in
him than his instructors. " He had the most scrupulous
regard for truth. He never held his word light. He
never said an untruthful word, even in jest. He was of a
reflective mind, and at times very reticent and somber.
Something seemed working deep down in his thought
— things he knew as little about as we. There would be
* "Personal Memoirs."
t General Viele.
t General James Longstreet, afterward an eminent and able general in
the Confederate army.
46 LIFE OF GRANT
days, even weeks, at a time when he would be silent and
somber — not morose. He was a cheerful man, and yet
he had these moments when he seemed to feel some pre
monition of a great future, wondering what he was to do
and what he was to become. He was moved by a very
sincere motive to join the Dialectic Society, which was
the only literary society we had. I did not belong, but
Grant joined, while we were room-mates, with the aim to
improve in his manner of expressing himself." And a
certificate of membership, still extant, shows Grant to
have been sufficiently well thought of by the members to
have been elected its president*
All this does not mean that he was reserved or priggish.
He was generally ready for any fun which did not involve
deceit or lying. " He had a sense of humor," W. B. Frank
lin said. " No man can be called a ' good fellow/ as Grant
was, and be a dullard." He was ready for a frolic. One
night a chicken was being roasted in Grant's room, when
a tack (tactical officer) was heard at the door. Grant hid
the chicken and saucepan, and stood " attention " before
the fire, with face quite impassive. The officer entered.
Grant saluted. The officer walked around the room, look
ing very hard at the ceiling and walls, where nothing could
be seen. " Mr. Grant, I think there is a peculiar smell in
your room."
" I 've noticed it, sir," replied Grant.
" Be careful that something does not catch fire."
" Thank you, sir," replied Grant, saluting.
The two years wore away at last, and, with a very good
record, he applied for a vacation, and secured it.
* " DIALECTIC SOCIETY,
" UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY.
" Be it known that James Allen Hardie of the State of New York is entitled
to all the rights and privileges of an honorary member of the Dialectic Society.
' ' In Testimony of which we have caused to be hereunto affixed the seal of the
Society and the signatures of our President and Secretary.
" U. H. GRANT,
President. ( Dated at the Hall of the Society, West
" W. S. HANCOCK, r Point, June 20, 1843."
Secretary. )
(From original, in possession of Mr. Joseph C. Hardie, Washington, D. C.)
CHAPTER VI
VACATION-TIME
IV TE AN WHILE, Grant's father had removed from
IVl Georgetown to Bethel, a small town a few miles
nearer Cincinnati, and had established a fine tannery there.
The cadets of that day were only allowed one furlough
during the course of study, and Ulysses looked forward
with great eagerness to his return to his parents and to
his home.
From Harrisburg homeward he had the company of
his grandmother Simpson and Miss Kate Lowe, a very
charming young lady from New York, who helped him
bear in patience the long canal-boat ride to Hollidaysburg.
It fell at the end of the lovely month of June, the way
led through the exquisite scenery of Pennsylvania, and
the boat abounded in material comforts. Grant himself,
in speaking of the charms of this route, says : " With the
comfortable packets, no mode of conveyance could be
more pleasant, when time was not an object " ; and obvi
ously, in this case, time was no object.
Miss Lowe considered Cadet Grant a fine-looking young
man. He had clear eyes and good features; but was
chiefly attractive on account of his splendid carriage and
soldierly bearing. He was fastidious in dress, wearing
always a blue sack-coat and white-duck trousers, of which
he seemed to have a fresh pair for every day in the week.
Though somewhat bashful, he was never awkward, and
though rather reserved and reticent in company, he always
had something to say. The strongest bond between them
was their mutual love for riding, and horses and horse-
47
48 LIFE OF GRANT
manship was a topic of unfailing interest, while current
events and neighborhood gossip came in for their proper
share. Polite literature was also a fruitful theme, for Grant
at this time was a great lover of good novels — was given,
indeed, to spending rather too much of his time at West
Point devouring them, Bulwer, Cooper, Marryat, Scott,
Lever, and Washington Irving taking their turn with many
others.
His most charming characteristic, however, was his
extreme courtesy ; he was full of delicate and kind atten
tions, not less to his aged grandmother than to the most
fascinating young woman.
It was late when he reached home — in the riotous lux
uriance of summer not yet past its freshness. The boy
was nineteen, and full of the joy of life. The world seemed
a good place to be in during those care-free weeks. The
only pain in his life was the thought of the shortness of
the play-spell.
He went straight to his sweet and gentle mother, of
course. "Why, Ulysses," she said, with a face shining
with pride, " you Ve grown much straighter and taller."
" Yes, mother," he replied ; " they teach us to be erect."
The father's pride in his boy was boundless. He pro
vided him with a fine young colt to ride, and after a day
at home, he rode like a pursued Sioux over to George
town, to see the girls and boys of his acquaintance. It is
remembered that he used to drive over " like Jehu, and
load in some old friend, and go off a-whizzin' ! "
One of the girls he hastened to see was Miss Mary King.
To her he had significantly sent one of his best drawings
from West Point. The drawing is signed " U. H. Grant."
These things give color to the tradition that Miss King
was the boyhood sweetheart who had made West Point
seem a long way off. Of her little can be learned save
that she had accepted another wooer. It is not remem
bered that Ulysses grew wan with grief. Perhaps Miss
Lowe was a helpful influence.
The Grant home in Bethel was a comfortable brick
house similar to the home in Georgetown; but the tan
nery was much more extensive. The village itself was
s . V
A sketch made by Grant about the time he was at West Point.
Reproduced by permission from the original drawing, owned by C. F. Gunther, Chicago, and now first published.
A water-color sketch made by Grant about the time he was at West Point.
Reproduced by permission from the original, owned by Mrs. Rotherey, Newark, New Jersey, and now first published.
VACATION-TIME 49
hardly more than a street lined with a dozen buildings,
whose broadsides stood close to the narrow walks — a style
of architecture not Northern, nor Southern, nor Western,
but partaking of the characteristics of them all, in the
manner of Georgetown and Batavia. Like Georgetown,
it had also been hewn out of the forest, and had no river
connection.
The people commented freely on the young cadet's
improved manners, and the Georgetown " Gravel Club,"
which met under the trees before the court-house door,
admitted that he might make a decent mark for muskets,
after all. They did this grudgingly, to be sure ; for wise
acres in a small town are very loath to change their
views. They arrogate to themselves the infallibility of
gods and popes. Sitting on counters and nail-kegs as
upon thrones, they still continued to direct the destiny of
the world, including that of Cadet Grant.
" His neat undress uniform, his erect carriage, pleasant
face, and his easy and graceful horsemanship, won hearty
commendation from the unprejudiced. The young cadet
made many visits to the home of John W. Lowe, a mem
ber of the bar. in whose home Miss Kate Lowe was
staying."
With rides and walks with the girls, and games with the
boys, the vacation passed. It was all too sorrowfully
short, and the young cadet said good-by with a sigh of
pain. However, he was young, and had attached himself
to his chums, Rufus Ingalls, Charles Hamilton, and others
of the most promising of his classmates, and he soon
found his heart as light and his mind as untroubled as
before.
" I enjoyed this vacation beyond any other period of
my life," he said afterward; and the words must be taken
at their utmost value, for Ulysses Grant seldom allowed
himself even this much in the way of emotional expression.
CHAPTER VII
LAST DAYS AT WEST POINT
1*'O return to the barrack life after the glorious free
dom of the vacation was like returning to prison.
Again the insistent snarl of the drum summoned to roll-
call. The bugle, the morning gun, the staccato com
mands of officers, brought a routine which clamped like
an iron band;* but this wore off in a few days, and the
pleasant things reasserted their charm.
It had its compensations, this life, which got hold ot
Cadet Grant at last. It was a healthful life, this cease
less marching to and fro, this vigorous, regular routine.
The instruction was good, the exercise well timed and
well considered, and the cadets were all markedly grace
ful, strong, and well. It had its beautiful side, too. The
surroundings of the place are noble, and the sun rises and
sets in unspeakable glory of color. The shaven green ot
the lawn, the gleam of tents, the swing of columns, the
ripple of pliant snow-white trousers beneath a band of
blue coats, the crash of horn and cymbals, the clamor and
squeal of drum and fife, the boom of sunset gun, the rum
ble and jar of wheeling artillery — all these sounds and pic
tures came to be keen pleasures to divide the dull gray
hours of hard study with moments of purple and gold.
The cavalry drill, which was added in 1841, undoubtedly
helped Cadet Grant to endure these last years. Every
morning of the autumn, while the maples turned from
green to gold and orange and scarlet, the battalion wheeled
* This is made evident by the increase of demerit marks during the first
month after vacation.
50
LAST DAYS AT WEST POINT 5 I
over the parade-ground. The call of the bugles, the thrill
ing commands, the reel of the horses, the clang of sabers,
the splendid voices of the commanders, the drumming of
hoofs, the swift swing into perfect alignment, — all these
movements helped him to forget his homesickness, and
gave him appetite for dinner and what came after.
A deeper effect was beginning to appear. He felt some
stirrings of ambition to be a military leader. They were
not very pronounced, but sufficiently definite to enable
him to write afterward:
" In fact, I regarded General Scott and Captain C. F.
Smith, the commandant of cadets, as the two men most to
be envied in the nation."
He concluded, at length, to remain in the army, and
wished to enter the cavalry — moved thereto, of course, by
his love of horses ; but as there was only one regiment of
cavalry in the army at that time, the chance for a position
in the cavalry was not good. Nevertheless, at graduation
he indicated his first choice, the cavalry, and his second
choice, the Fourth Infantry.
He was brevetted second lieutenant of the Fourth
Infantry, and ordered to report to his command at Jefferson
Barracks, St. Louis, after a short vacation.
The entire army of the United States at that time
numbered less than eight thousand men, and the supply
of officers then, as now, was embarrassingly large. It was
the custom, therefore, to brevet graduates second lieu
tenant.
He graduated the twenty-first in a roll of thirty-nine,
with a fair record in all things, a good record in mathematics
and engineering, and a remarkable record as horseman.
More than a hundred had entered with him, but one by one
they had dropped out till but thirty-nine remained. Rid
ing his horse York, he leaped a bar five feet six and a
half inches high — a mark, it is said, which has never been
surpassed.
"One afternoon in June, 1843, while I was at West
Point a candidate for admission to the Military Academy,
I wandered into the riding-hall, where the members of the
graduating class were going through their final mounted
52 LIFE OF GRANT
exercises before Major Richard Delafield, the distinguished
engineer (then superintendent), the academic board, and a
large assemblage of spectators.
" When the regular services were completed, the class,
still mounted, was formed in line through the center of
the hall. The riding-master placed the leaping-bar higher
than a man's head, and called out, ' Cadet Grant ! '
" A clean-faced, slender young fellow, weighing about
one hundred and twenty pounds, dashed from the ranks on
a powerfully built chestnut-sorrel horse, and galloped down
the opposite side of the hall. As he turned at the farther
end, and came into the straight stretch across which the bar
was placed, the horse increased his pace and measured his
strides for the great leap before him, bounded into the air,
and cleared the bar, carrying his rider as if man and beast
were welded together. The spectators were breathless.
" ' Very well done, sir,' growled old Herschberger, the
riding-master, and the class was dismissed." *
When spoken to about this feat, he was accustomed to
smile a little bashfully, and retreat by saying : " Yes ; York
was a wonderfully good horse."
Apparently Grant remained markedly unmilitary
throughout the four years' course. He served as a private
throughout the first two years of his course. During the
third year he was made sergeant, but was dropped (pro
motions at that time were made for soldierly qualities,
and had no exact relation to excellence in studies), and
during the fourth year he served again as private. He
had no real heart in the military side of the life. Its
never-ending salutes, reprimands, drills, and parades wore
upon him.
" I did not take to my studies with avidity ; in fact, I
rarely read over a lesson the second time during the entire
cadetship. I devoted more time to reading books from
the library than to books relating to the course of studies." f
" Notwithstanding this modest statement, Cadet Grant
stood well in his studies. The first year he took up French
* James B. Frye, afterward general in the Civil War ; Captain L. Shields
and General E. G. Viele also speak of Grant's remarkable horsemanship,
t " Personal Memoirs."
LAST DAYS AT WEST POINT 53
and mathematics, and though the course was severe, in
cluding algebra, geometry, trigonometry, application of
algebra to geometry, etc., he stood fifteenth in a class of
sixty in mathematics, and forty-ninth in French, and
twenty-seventh in order of general merit. The second
year he climbed three points in general merit, and stood
twenty-fourth in a class of fifty-three. He ranked Fred
erick Steele and Rufus Tngall?, and stood tenth in mathe
matics and twenty-third in drawing, but was below the
center in ethics and French. In his third year he rose
in his drawing to nineteen, and was twenty-second in
chemistry and fifteenth in philosophy, which was a very
good standing indeed. He rose to twenty in general
merit, sixteen in engineering, seventeen in mineralogy and
geology, but was a little below the average in ethics and
artillery and infantry practice."
In general, it may be said that he left the academy
with a good average record as a student and a very high
record as a man.
" He betrayed no trust, falsified no word, violated no
rights, manifested no tyranny, sought no personal aggran
dizement, complained of no hardships, displayed no jeal
ousy, oppressed no subordinate, and was ever known for
his humanity, sagacity, courage, and honor."
These were negative virtues, it is true. On the posi
tive side little could be said at that time. He was not a
man of obvious powers. He left the gate at West Point
small, obscure, poor, and without political friends or in
fluential relatives,* a kind, obliging, clean-lipped, good-
hearted country boy, who could ride a horse over a picket-
fence or across a tight rope.
To his old playmates in Georgetown he seemed a self-
reliant, well-balanced young soldier. The training had
done much for the shy lad.
* It is reported that two of the teachers, in talking over the class, asked
each other, " Who is the smartest man in the class? " and one replied, in his
turn, " Sam Grant." This, however, is of the order si post facto prophecy.
CHAPTER
GRANT'S FIRST COMMAND
HE spent his furlough in Bethel and Georgetown.
During his stay he was invited by the officers of
the militia to drill the troops at " general muster/' which
took place at Russelsville during August of 1844, and this
was his first opportunity of command.
These semiannual musterings of the possible soldiery
of the country had come to be a jolly farce. It was
ordered by State law twice each year, however, and so it
was made the most of.
The troops were called the " Corn-stalk Brigade " be
cause of their lack of guns and uniforms. Occasionally
some wag would appear with a broomstick or a stalk of
corn in place of musket. And discipline was not coercive
enough, nor command military enough, to make general
muster other than a diversion to which the people as
sembled to trade horses, drink cider, and eat gingerbread,
which was considered in the light of ice-cream and candy
by the young fellows and their girls.
On that day the people came on horseback and afoot
from every nook of the country with such soldierly be
longings as they had — guns of all eras, and coats and caps
of all sorts and colors. The officers, pompous in martial
toggery, woofed and grunted and howled their orders at
the straggling files for an hour or two, then lay off to
lunch and talk politics, while the men traded horses and
settled any odd scores they might have on hand by fist-
and-face encounters ; and at sundown every one went home,
conscious of a duty well done and a day well spent.
54
U. S. Grant as Brevet Second Lieutenant, age 21 years.
Taken in Cincinnati in 1843, Just after graduation from West Point.
U. S. Grant as Captain, while stationed at Sacket's Harbor,
New York, 1849, age 27 years.
From a very small miniature.
GRANT'S FIRST COMMAND 55
In 1844, however, the Mexican War excitement was
rising, and the turnout was naturally larger and the soldiers
more serious of mind ; then, too, it was known that Cadet
Grant was to be present to drill the troops, and that
added to the interest.
The scene impressed itself ineffaceably on certain of
young Grant's playmates, because it seemed wonderful,
even revolutionary, to see a young lad such as Cadet
Grant looked, ordering the pompous old officers about.
" He looked very young, very slender, and very pale."
" He was dressed in a long blue coat with big epaulets
and big brass buttons, and his trousers seemed to be
white, though they may have been a light gray. He
wore a cap, and a red sash around his waist, and he rode
his horse in fine style." He handled his men in a way to
make his former detractors marvel.
" I was particularly struck with his voice — that is, his
way of using it. The old men barked out their com
mands ; you could n't tell what they said ; noise seemed
to be their idea of command. But Grant's voice was
clear and calm, and cut across the parade-ground with
great precision. It was rather high in pitch, but it was
trained; I could tell that, though I was only a boy."
This was the young soldier's first command, and must
have been one of his red-letter days. Being human, no
doubt he rejoiced in showing his old neighbors that they
had not properly estimated him, and being young, he en
joyed the shy glances of admiration which the girls gave
him as he passed in his resplendent uniform.
It must have been after this that he fell in with the
unwashed, one-gallused Cincinnati street gamin who
trotted by his side long enough to pipe these mystic
words, worthy of Gavroche :
"Soldier, will you work? No, sirree! I '11 sell my
shirt first."
His cutting sarcasm gave Ulysses such a distaste of his
uniform that thenceforth he shunned the slightest display
of his rank.*
At this time he was a small young fellow, a little over
* " Personal Memoirs."
56 LIFE OF GRANT
five feet seven inches in height, and weighing but one
hundred and seventeen pounds, and, according to his first
portrait, his face was strongly lined, like his father's, with
fine, straight nose and square jaws. A pleasant and
shrewd face it was, with a twinkle in the gray-blue eyes
when amused, and a comical twist in the long, flexible
lips when smiling. His hair was a sandy brown, and his
complexion still inclined to freckles. His early sweetheart
had married another man, and his second had not returned
his love, but no deep sorrow appears on his face.
His ambitions were not inordinate. He still held to
the idea of getting a place to teach in some quiet place,
with a salary sufficient to support a wife. He had no
corrupting desire for glory — for personal aggrandizement.
He had no somber and lurid dreams of conquest. He
did not look away to Mexico or Peru as a field for a
sudden rise to sole and splendid command. He had in
mind a little wooden cottage somewhere under the maples,
with a small woman to care for the home, and to meet him
at the door as he returned from his daily duties as pro
fessor of mathematics in Blank College. All this is very
little to hope for, but he seems to have given it a great
deal of troubled thought. The awful splendor of General
Scott's position he never once lifted his eyes to. Even
that of his instructor, Captain C. F. Smith, seemed unat
tainable security and glory.
" The small man with the big epaulets," under the
spell of a street-boy's derision, had even lost all pleasure
in his uniform, and his civilian's coat was a pleasurable
relief. In such unmilitary mood he took his way to his
regiment in the " far West."
CHAPTER IX
GRANT'S COURTSHIP
ABOUT ten miles south of the city of St. Louis, and on
JLJL a fine height which overlooks the oily tan-colored
flood of the Mississippi River, is set the Jefferson Barracks,
of early Western history. New buildings have been
added from time to time, and the trees have grown ; but
the old buildings, set around the square of sward, are
quite untouched by change ; they look much as they did
in 1843, when Ulysses Grant joined the army there, and
entered upon his duties as brevet second lieutenant of the
Fourth Infantry.
They are of whitewashed stone, with galleries and gener
ous roofs, in the Southern manner. At the eastern end of
the campus is set the flagstaff, and under it the brass
cannon which serves as evening gun. Across the river
are wooded banks, and to the north the city of St. Louis
shows vaguely in the smoke and haze. On the river
below steamboats ply with shining paddle-wheels which
make no noise. There is a singular air of peace and
repose and gentle life within this square, which rings at
intervals with the imperious commands of the bugle. All
fear, all anxiety concerning life, seems left behind. The
men move quietly about, the robins tug at worms on the
lawn, and the blue-jay flying across mocks th^ bugle's
note with saucy unconcern.
It was a large garrison in the early forties, for St. Louis
was then a far- Western town and a most important mili
tary base. No less than sixteen companies of infantry
were stationed there when Lieutenant Grant was assigned
57
58 LIFE OF GRANT
first duty after his graduation from West Point. Colonel
Stephen Kearney commanded the post, and commanded it
reasonably ; and the young lieutenant found army life very
agreeable. The routine was not severe, and though his
room was bare and the life monotonous, yet it had com
pensating charms. For diversion, men and officers alike
looked away to St. Louis. Between roll-calls and drills
the officers were permitted to enjoy themselves without
inquisitorial search inco their p*auj a.id motives.
With his mind still set on securing a situation as teacher,
Ulysses set to work to do some btudying and reading.
Possibly this resolution kept him out of the degenerating
tendency of the routine life which makes toward indiffer-
entism and mechanical action. No one has yet uttered a
word of criticism of his life there.*
" He became a general favorite at once, and his name
was never connected with anything which called for re
buke or reproach," said his classmate Longstreet. u The
routine was strict enough to account for every man and
to fill his time pretty thoroughly. It was about like that
at West Point, with thorough daily drill ; for the Mexican
War was threatening.'*
From the barracks an irregular road led to the north
west toward Georgetown, intersecting the famous Gravois
road from St. Louis at a point about nine miles outside
of the city. This byway came to be a familiar one to
Ulysses Grant, for the father of his classmate and room
mate, F. T. Dent, lived " out on the Gravois road," a mile
or so beyond its intersection with the barrack road.
" Colonel " Dent, as he was called, was a man of some
means and social standing in the neighborhood. He held
a large tract of valuable land, and owned a bunch of negro
men and women, and was living in simple planter fashion
at the time his son Fred returned from West Point.
* Lieutenant Grant was assigned first duty after his graduation from West
Point. As he marched up to the guard-house the first time as supernumerary
officer, ruddy-cheeked, square of shoulders, a crazy but harmless soldier who
was confined in the guard-house said, with an inflection as mystical as that
used by the street-urchin in Cincinnati : " Ah, there you go, like a young bear.
All your troubles before you." Lieutenant Grant gave no sign of hearing,
but no doubt thought that all his honors were before him also.
The house in which Grant went to school at Georgetown, Ohio.
" White Haven," the Dent homestead near St. Louis, Missouri.
Redrawn from an old drawing owned by Mrs. U. S. Grant.
GRANT'S COURTSHIP 59
Young Dent was intimate enough with Ulysses Grant to
visit him at his home in Bethel, and also to invite him to
visit " White Haven," as the elder Dent rather grandiosely
called his farm-house. Before Ulysses was able to make
this visit, however, young Dent was forced to report for
duty in a regiment stationed farther west, and had not the
pleasure of introducing his room-mate to his family.
The Dent household contained three young girls, Emma,
Julia, and Ellen. Julia, a girl of seventeen, was visiting in
St. Louis, and Lieutenant Grant, upon making his first
v:si<-, did pot meet her, though he found the house filled
with young people . Besides the two younger sisters, there
were also two brothers, Lewis and Renshaw.
Mr. Grant enjoyed his visits to White Haven even
before Miss Julia returned from St. Louis ; but afterward
he very frequently rode out there, clattering furiously up
the road in impetuous, boyish fashion, for between drills
and roll-calls was brief time to make a visit in, especially
upon a young lady whose home was several miles away.
White Haven was a plain farm-house with two small
ish rooms and a hall in the main part below. It had also
an addition to the west, and a negro cabin and kitchen to
the rear. It was imposing by reason of its galleries, its
position, and the beautiful surroundings it overlooked.
It was not so overawing to the young Ohioan as the im
perious " colonel " himself, who was at this time a middle-
aged man of large frame and irascible temperament, quite
the ideal in manner of a gentleman of the plantation — a
man who commanded labor, but did not act with it.
According to local testimony, Dent took small interest
in Ulysses Grant, who was a plain, inexpressive youth,
quite commonplace in all discernible ways. Mrs. Dent,
on the contrary, it is said, liked young Grant at once.
Her keen sense apprehended in him honesty, loyalty, and
a certain refinement, as well as capacity. Her greetings
continued to be cordial even after it appeared that her
daughter Julia was wholly committed to the young lieu
tenant's future weal or woe.
Georgetown was the back country then. St. Louis was
ten miles away over a bad road, and its pleasures quite
60 LIFE OF GRANT
out of reach in winter; therefore the Dent family took
active part in the dances, parties, and " bees " of the
neighbors. At the Longs, the Fentons, the Sappingtons,
the young people gathered of evenings to dance and sing,
and in these merrymakings Grant and some of his fellow-
officers from the barracks were frequent participants.
Besides these, there were long rides along the woods roads,
and evenings spent quietly at home in White Haven.
These were beautiful days, with little to worry about and
nothing to regret. Within the barracks all was peaceful.
Across the lovely hills and through secluded wooded lanes
die lovers rode without prevision ci trouble.
CHAPTER X
CALL TO WAR
BUT outside, in the nation at large, were signs of a
gathering storm. The one political issue which
overshadowed all others was the question of the annexa
tion of Texas. It was, in fact, the slavery problem in a
new form. The pro-slavery leaders felt the need of
acquiring more territory with which to hold in check the
growing power of the antislavery States ; the Northwest
was coming each year to be stronger and to be also more
pronouncedly abolitionist in feeling. The inevitable con
flict had really begun, under a masked campaign.
Into the Mexican territory of Texas, under cover of indi
vidual colonization, settlement, mainly from the South, had
been going on for years by invitation of the unsuspect
ing Mexicans. The planters of Louisiana and Mississippi
took not merely their ideas of government, but their slaves,
with them.
These colonists, as they grew in power, paid small heed
to the far-away and revolution-distracted Mexican govern
ment. They came at last to the point of setting up an
independent government of their own, the " Lone Star
Republic," within the territory of the Mexicans; and then
the United States was suddenly made aware of the doings
of this distant southwest colony, and was forced to take
action upon the whole contention.
Texas seceded from Mexico, won its battles over Santa
Ana, the Mexican President, in 1836, and offered itself to
the United States and was accepted by Congress in 1845.
It was conceivable to the pro-slavery men that out of this
61
62 LIFE OF GRANT
enormous territory senatorial districts might appear to
keep the balance of power in the South during the titanic
struggle which the fore-enlightened now plainly saw
coming. Pending this acceptance by the United States,
desultory warfare and raiding by both parties was going
on between the frontiers, and it was ostensibly to prevent
filibustering into Texas that General Zachary Taylor, com
mander of the Southwest Military District, was ordered
to occupy the disputed territory lying between the Rio
Grande and Nueces rivers.
It was not much to fight for, this land. In fact, it re
mains to-day practically unused — a region of drought,
covered with mesquit and cactus, with only here and theie
a settler lost in the chaparral. However, anything will do
as a pretext when a fight is desired.
Thus while Lieutenant Grant was in the midst of his
most beautiful year of love and comradeship the national
leaders were plotting for party aggrandizement and, sec
ondly, for national aggression.
Up to this time the young soldier had not taken any
very vital interest in politics, and, still intent on leaving
the army, had written to Professor Church, his old in
structor at West Point, asking to be detailed for the posi
tion of assistant teacher of mathematics. To this letter
Professor Church had replied expressing willingness to
make the request; and being much encouraged, Lieuten
ant Grant had been applying himself to the necessary
books to fit himself for the desired position.
His life was a round of pleasant things — the peaceful
garrison life, the dashing rides up the forest road, the
simple, hearty greetings of the people at Georgetown,
and, above all, the presence of a little woman to share
hopes and pleasures with. War was a great way off, and
Texas a word of vague significance and still vaguer geog
raphy.
However, the order came to the Fourth Infantry to
break camp and join the Second Dragoons at Fort Jessup
in Louisiana. This order also brought to Lieutenant
Grant a realizing sense of his dependence upon the good
will of Miss Julia Dent. He had just obtained a twenty-
CALL TO WAR 63
day leave of absence to visit Ohio when the order came
to the barracks. He was, in fact, on the road, and there
was no way of recalling him, save by letter; so he jour
neyed on without worry.
His worry began when a letter reached him telling him
his regiment was about to move. He had not arrived at
a definite understanding with Miss Dent, being content to
meet her day by day ; but now war was threatening, and
it seemed of paramount necessity that he should know
precisely her feeling toward him. He returned in express
haste to Jefferson Barracks. Upon arrival, he saddled
his horse and rode immediately to Gravois.
He arrived at White Haven on the day of a wedding
among friends of the Dents, and all things conspired to
make him very determined and more than usually serious.
He found Miss Julia in a carnage, just starting to the
wedding with her brother. He persuaded the brother to
take his horse, and so won a place in a single-seated
carriage with Miss Julia, and they started.
He was unusually silent at first.
Now it chanced that heavy rains had swollen the creek
to abnormal size, and the frail bridge was nearly sub
merged with a wild and turbid flood. As they ap
proached it Miss Dent grew apprehensive, and said:
" Are you sure it is all right? "
"Oh, yes; it 's all right," he replied, man-fashion to
womankind.
" Well, now, Ulysses, I 'm going to cling to you if we
go down," Miss Dent said.
" We won't go down," he replied, and drove resolutely
across, while the scared girl clung to his arm.
She released her hold as they reached the other side of
the bridge, and he drove on in thoughtful silence for some
distance. At length he cleared his throat.
" Julia, you spoke just now of clinging to me, no matter
what happened. I wonder if you would cling to me all
my life ? " This was a great deal of sentiment and imagery
for a man with eight generations of New England ancestry
behind him.
Her answer was favorable, but, being astute young
64 LIFE OF GRANT
Americans, they agreed to say nothing to Mr. and Mrs.
Dent till his return from the South, at least. He was
quite sure Colonel Dent would not favor his suit. A poor
plain young second lieutenant (by courtesy), a man
whisked about at the command of the War Department,
was a very bad match for Miss Julia Dent.
Lieutenant Grant left immediately to join his regiment
near Natchitoches, in Louisiana, and Miss Dent went back
to White Haven to wait, which is the lot of women. She
found her greatest pleasure, during the years of separation
which followed, in his letters. He had always been a
good letter- writer, but under the stimulus of love and a
life of action in strange scenes he surpassed himself. He
delineated the landscape, the camp life, and the campaigns,
and through all his letters ran the expression of a pure
and loyal love.
His first camp was near the town of Natchitoches, in
Louisiana. It is an old French town situated on the Red
River. At that time the Sabine formed the United States
frontier to the Southwest. The nearest post was called
Fort Jessup, but the camp, which was on a pine ridge,
was called " Camp Salubrity " by the soldiers. The State
of Texas was not yet annexed, though annexation was
pending in Congress.
In a letter to a friend he describes his journey to Camp
Salubrity, and says : " My trip was marked with no in
cident, save one, worth relating, and that one is laughable,
curious, important, surprising, etc. ; but I can't tell it now ;
it is for the present a secret." This was his reference to
his proposal and acceptance.
He describes his mode of living : " I have a small tent
that the rain runs through as it would through a sieve.
For a bedstead I have four short pine sticks set upright,
and planks running from the two at one end to the others ;
for chairs I use my trunk and bed ; and as to a floor, we
have no such luxury yet. Our meats are cooked in the
woods by servants who know as little of culinary matters
as I do myself."
The regiment remained in camp at Salubrity for a year,
waiting for further orders. During this time the officers
CALL TO WAR 6$
whiled away the days by visiting Fort Jessup, Natchitoches,
Grand Grove, and other places of interest. Lieutenant
Grant learned to play " brag," and on rainy days, with
Longstreet and other young officers, used to play all day
at penny stakes. This was wildly exciting at times, but
not calamitous to any player ; sometimes they lost seventy-
five cents !
Ostensibly the Third and Fourth regiments were sta
tioned at that point "to prevent filibustering into Texas,"
but really as a menace to Mexico in case she appeared to
contemplate war. Generally the officers of the army were
indifferent whether the annexation should be consum
mated or not; but Grant was bitterly opposed to the
measure. He saw in it aggression and the selfish plans of
politicians, and he began also to comprehend something
of the far-reaching policy of the slave interest, which had
no hope of new territory in the Northwest, and therefore
must seek it in the Southwest.
There is something inexorable in the manner in which
the South won this fight for new territory, and something
mystical in the process by which a sectional victory came
at the last to be a national glory. Looking at the map of
1844 makes it hard to believe that the United States could
have maintained such a line of frontier. New Mexico,
also a sparsely settled Mexican province, extended into
the north to the latitude of the southern line of Kansas.
This jagged, vague, and wandering line was too long to
be held. It needed to be reduced to simple terms.
All this year of camp life the discussion raged in Con
gress and in the North. The abolitionists were raising
their banner with a ferocity of fanaticism which made war
a certainty and a necessity. This was the second advan
cing wave of discussion. War was prophesied in the in
tensity of this discussion. Slavery won ; the State was
annexed. In March, 1845, President Tyler signed the
bill for annexation, and Texas became a part of the
United States, and the " army of observation" was or
dered to occupy " the disputed territory," that is to say,
the tract lying between the Nueces and Colorado rivers.
The abolitionists and Free-soilers of the North received
66 LIFE OF GRANT
the news with bitter sorrow. It meant at least two more
slave States, and seemed to put just that much further
off the abolition of human slavery in the nation. The
pro-slavery element was correspondingly elated, and set
about making the most of their victory. No time was
allowed for a settlement with regard to this territory ; but
General Taylor, the famous Indian-fighter, who was then
in command of the Southwest district, was ordered to
cross the Nueces and enter upon the territory in dispute.
" If they offer to fight, we will whip them," was the feeling
of a very large body of people in the North as well as in
the South.
Early in May, Lieutenant Grant, believing he was about
to go into war, with remote chance of being killed, asked
for a leave of absence, and hastened to St. Louis to see
his bride elect, and to get the consent of Colonel Dent to
his union with his daughter Julia. This was given grudg
ingly and with reservations and provisos, and Lieutenant
Grant returned to his regiment.
Up to this time he had not given up his plan to become
an instructor in mathematics at West Point. He still
allowed himself to dream of a quiet life in a cottage on
the Hudson — a very modest home, with his young wife
therein, and his life going peacefully and unbrokenly for
ward. He had less military zeal, probably, than any
officer of the American army.
Nevertheless he was a soldier, and entered upon his
duties with outward readiness. Early in July the regi
ment was ordered to New Orleans, where it went into
barracks and waited for the politicians to decide upon the
next order. This took them to Corpus Christi, which was
a small village at the mouth of the Nueces River and on
the edge of the territory in dispute. Here Lieutenant
Grant came under general command for the first time.
There were about three thousand men under the imme
diate leadership of General Zachary Taylor. Grant was
profoundly impressed with this bold, ready, and uncon
ventional soldier, whose services against the Indians had
already raised him to prominence second only to that of
General Scott, commander-in-chief of the army.
Lieutenant U. S. Grant and Lieutenant Alexander Hays in 1845, when they were
starting for the Mexican War.
The original picture, owned by Mrs. Agnes M. Hays Gormly, was taken at Camp Salubrity, Louisiana,
in 1845. Beside Grant (the figure in the background) is his racing pony Dandy, and beside Lieutenant
Hays is his pony Sunshine. The two men had been fellow-cadets at West Point, and served in the same
regiment in the Mexican War. Afterward Hays, like Grant, retired from the army, to reenter it at the
breaking out of the Civil War as a colonel of volunteers. He became a brigadier-general, and was killed in
the battle of the Wilderness. Grant, on learning of his death, said: " I am not surprised that he met his
death at the head of his troops; it was just like him. He was a man who would never follow, but would
always lead, in battle."
CALL TO WAR 67
Texas at that time was very sparsely settled. San
Antonio was but a village and fort, and Corpus Christi
was a cross between a frontier ranch and a smugglers'
camp. Being at the mouth of the Nueces River, it was
the objective landing-place for an "army of occupation."
The town, when the army landed there, consisted of
twenty adobe houses. In a few weeks it was a town of
a thousand inhabitants, not counting the soldiers. Camp-
followers, traders, as well as citizens, attracted by the
presence of the soldiers, made up this miscellaneous and
not over-refined village.
There was hunting on the plain back of the town, but
that interested Lieutenant Grant very little ; he was no
gunner. He was far more interested in the wild horses
which moved in myriads over the Texas levels.
Life at Corpus Christi during the early autumn was not
pleasant. The heat was excessive and the air filled with
moisture. People live there, it is true, and apparently
enjoy life ; but the mortality among those not acclimated
is very great in the heated season of the year. The
Northern army suffered ; there were many sick, though
Grant remained well and active.
He made his first attempt as an actor at this time.
" The officers, eager for diversion, had built a theater,
and were depending upon their own efforts for reimburse
ment. The dramatic company was necessarily organized
among the younger officers, who took both male and
female parts. In farce and comedy they did well enough,
and soon collected funds enough to pay for the building
and incidental expenses. At length, finding themselves
sufficiently in funds to send over to New Orleans for cos
tumes, they concluded to try tragedy. The choosing of
players became more difficult when it came to a question
of the ' Moor of Venice.' Lieutenant Theodoric Porter
was selected to be the Moor; and Lieutenant Grant, be
cause of his small stature, handsome face, and soft voice,
was chosen to play the daughter of Brabantio. He looked
very well indeed dressed up, but Porter insisted that there
was hardly sentiment enough in having a man play the
part ; so the managers sent over to New Orleans for Mrs.
68 LIFE OF GRANT
Hart, who was very popular with the garrisons of Florida.
She came, and all went well." Grant played in several
farces, notably in "The Irish Lion." • Longstreet was in
the cast also, and furnishes an account of it.
Lieutenant Grant welcomed any relief from the weari
some life there on the hot sand, and when the opportunity
offered he joined the paymaster's outfit on its regular trip
to San Antonio and Austin. He saw the prairie, in all
its majesty, on that trip. Deer, antelope, and turkeys
abounded. It was a lonely land, with no settlement in
all the long way between Corpus Christi and San Antonio,
which was already famous for its tragic Alamo and its
capture by Santa Ana some years before. Grant met
with no hairbreadth adventures during his outing, yet it
was decidedly a memorable thing to ride by day over this
mighty primeval spread of sod, sighting the unhaltered
herds of cattle, and sleeping at night in the grass, with
not so much as a tent-cloth between him and the stars.
" One evening, while they were camped in the wilder
ness, there rose a multitudinous howling and yelping of
wolves. Grant, not used to the ways of these animals,
was seriously alarmed. His companion smiled, and said :
' How many do you think there are ? '
" ' Oh, about a dozen,' he replied.
" ' Let 's go and see,' suggested the other.
" They charged upon the fearsome pack, and lo ! one
wolf had made all the noise!"
Grant laid this by in his mind, and when some enemy
made loud clamor he thought of the solitary wolf's mani
fold v-^lping.
CHAPTER XI
GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE
MEANWHILE President Polk was in a quandary.
He wished the army to advance in hostile guise,
but he did not like to take the responsibility of command.
He sent broad hints to General Taylor that it was de
sirable to provoke an engagement; but Taylor refused to
move without official orders. He was too shrewd not
to understand the Executive's predicament. He insisted
on having definite and unequivocal instructions, through
proper military channels.
At length Polk ordered the army to proceed to the
Rio Grande.
The story of the campaign which followed was well set
forth by Lieutenant Grant in a letter written at Mata-
moros on June 26, 1846. Barring some comically mis
spelled words, it is a clear and well-ordered account of
the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.
I have just received your letter of the 6th of June, the first I
have had from you since my Regt took the field in anticipation
of the Annexation of Texas. Since that time the 4th Infantry
has experienced £mt little of that ease and luxury of which the
Hon. Mr Black speaks so much. Besides hard marching a great
part of the time we have not even been blessed with a good tent
as a protection against wind and weather.
At Corpus Christs our troops were much exposed last winter
which the citizens say was the severest season they have had for
many years. From Corpus Christi to this place (a distance of
about 1 80 miles) they had to march through a long sandy desert
covered with salt ponds and in one or two instances ponds of
69
70 LIFE OF GRANT
drinkable water were separated by a whole days March. The
troops suffered much but stood it like men who were able to
fight many such battles as those of the 8th & Qth of May, that is
without a murmur.
On our arrival at Rio Grande we found Matamoras occupied
by a force superior to ours (in numbers) who might have made
our March very uncomfortable if they had have had the spirit
and courage to attempt it. But they confined their hostilities
(except their paper ones) to small detached parties and single
individuals as in the cases you mentioii :n your letter, until they
had their force augmented to thrible or quadruple ours and then
they made the bold efforts of which the papers are full. About
the last of April we got word of the enemy crossing the river no
doubt with the intention of cutting us off from our supplies at
Point Isabel. On the ist of April at three o'clock General
Taylor started with about 2000 men to go after and escort the
waggon train from Point Isabel, and with the determination to
cut his way, no matter how superior their numbers.
Our March on this occation was as severe as could be made.
Until three o'clock at night we scarsely halted, then we laid
down in the grass and took a little sleep and marched the bal-
lance of the way the next morning. Our March was mostly
through grass up to the waist with a wet and uneven bottom
yet we made 30 miles in much less than a day. I consider my
March on that occation equal to a walk of sixty miles in one
day on good roads and unencumbered with troops. The next
morning after our arrival at Point Isabel we heard the enemies
Artillery playing upon the little Field work which we had left
Garrisoned by the yth Infy and two Companies of Artillery.
This bombardment was kept up for seven days with a loss of
but two killed and four or five wounded on our side. The loss
of the enemy was much greater though not serious.
On the 7th of May General Taylor started from P. I. with his
little force encombered with a train of about 250 waggons loaded
with proviosions and ammunition. Although we knew the enemy
was between us and Matamoras and in large numbers too, yet I
did not believe I was not able to appreciate the possibility of an
attack from them. We had heard so much bombast and so
many threats from the Mexicans that I began to believe that
they were good for paper wars alone, but they stood up to their
work manfully.
On the 8th when within about 14 miles of Matamoras we
found the enemy drawn up in line of battle on the edge of the
Priarie next a piece of woods called Palo Alto (which is the
GRANTS FIRST BATTLE 7 I
Spanish for tall Trees) Even then I did not believe they were
going to give battle. Our troops were halted out of range of
Artillery and the waggons parked and the men allowed to fill
their canteens with water. All preparations being made we
marched forward in line of battle until we received a few shots
tr^m the enemy and then we halted and then our Artillery com
menced.
The first shot was fired about three o'clock p. M. and was
Kept up pretty equally on both sides until sun down or after ; we
tnen encamped on our own ground and the enemy on theirs.
We supposed that the loss of the enemy had not been much
greater than our own and expected of course that the fight
would be renewed in the morning. During that night I believe
all slept as soundly on the ground at Palo Alto as if they had
been in a palace. For my part I dont think I even dreamed of
battles.
During the days fight I scarsely thought of the probability or
possibility of being touched myself (although 9 Ib. shots were
whistling all round) until near the close of the evening a shot
struck the ranks a little ways in front of me and nocked one
man's head off, nocked the under jaw of Capt. Page entirely
away and brought several others to the ground. Although
Capt. Page received so terrible a wound he is recovering from
it. The under jaw is gone to the wind pipe and the tongue
hangs down upon the throat. He will never be able to speak or
to eat.
The next morning we found to our surprise that the last rear
guard of the enemy was just leaving their ground, the main body
having left during the night. From Palo Alto to Matamoras
there is for a great part of the way a dense forest of under
growth, here called Chapparel. The Mexicans after having
marched a few miles through this were reenforced by a con-
ciderable body of troops. They chose a place on the opposite
side from us of a long but narrow pond (called Resaca de la
Palma) which gave them greatly the advantage of position.
Here they made a stand. The fight was a pel Mel affair evry
body for himself. The Capparel is so dense that you may be
within five feet of a person and not know it. Our troops rushed
forward with shouts of victory and would kill and drive away
the Mexicans from evry piece of Artillery they could get their
eyes upon. The Mexicans stood this hot work for over two
hours but with a great loss. When they did retreat there was
such a panic among them that they only thought of safty in
flight. They made the best of their way for the river and where
72 LIFE OF GRANT
ever they struck it they would rush in. Many of them no doubt
were drowned.
Our loss in the two days were 182 killed & wounded. What
the loss of the enemy was cannot be certainly ascertained but I
know acres of ground was strewed with the bodies of the dead
and wounded. I think it would not be an over estimate to say
that their loss from killed, wounded, take prisoners and missing
was over 2000 and of the remainder nothing now scarsely re
mains. So precipitate was their flight when they found that we
were going to cross the river and take the town, that sickness
broke out among them and as we have understood, they have
but little effective force left. News has been received that
Parades is about taking the field with a very large force. Daily,
volunteers are arriving to reenforce us and soon we will be able
to meet them in what ever force they choose to come. What
will be our course has not been announced in orders, but no
doubt we will carry the war into the interior.
Monteray, distance about 300 miles from here, will no doubt
be the first place where difficulties with an enemy await us. You
want to know what my feelings were on the field of battle! I
do not know that I felt any peculiar sensation. War seems
much less terrible to persons engaged in it than to those who
read of the battles.
I forgot to tell you in the proper place the amount of property
taken. We took on the gth eight piece of Artillery with all their
ammunition something like 2000 stand of Arms, Muskets, pistols,
Swords, Sabres, Lances &c., 500 mules with their packs, Camp
equipage & provisions and in fact evry thing they had. When
we got into the Camp of the enemy evry thing showed the great
confidence they had of success. They were actually cooking
their meal during the fight, and as we have since learned, the
women of Matamoras were making prepartions for a great festi
val upon the return of their victorious Army. — The people of
Mexico are a very different race of people from ours.
The better class are very proud and tirinize over the lower
and much more numerous class as much as hard master does
over his negroes and they submit to it quite as humbly. The
great majority inhabitants are either pure or more than half
blooded Indians, and show but little more signs of neatness or
comfort in their miserable dwellings than the uncivilized Indian:
— Matamoras contains probably about 7000 inhabitants, a great
majority of the lower order. It is not a place of as much busi
ness importance as our little towns of 1000. But no doubt I
will have an opportunity of knowing more of Mexico and the
GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE 73
Mexicans before I leave the country and I will take another
occation of telling you more of them.
So far our troops have had their health remarkably well.
In these battles Taylor's men were armed with flint
lock muskets, and his artillery was drawn by oxen ! The
enemy considerately looked on while he gee-hawed his
iron cannon into decent array, and filled them up with
powder and such shells as the time afforded. The whole
action had a touch of the comic in the midst of its tragedy.
The poor Mexicans had even worse muskets ; bell-
mouthed Spanish blunderbusses and spears made up their
most dangerous infantry weapons. They had in addition,
however, a few brass cannon, throwing feebly and hesitat
ingly some solid shot, which the Americans mainly were
able to dodge. There were some casualties in these skir
mishes, but, on the whole, the two armies managed it
very well. It was the first encounter of the American
arms with a civilized enemy for thirty years, and seemed
a most momentous battle. This day was made the more
memorable to Lieutenant Grant because he took his first
command in the field. The captain of his company being
selected for special duty, Lieutenant Grant was left in com
mand of the company — " an honor and responsibility I
thought very great."
The battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma were
hardly more than skirmishes in the light of the more
important operations soon begun against Monterey.
Matamoros was a town of quite unimportant size, while
Monterey was a city of great renown, the most important
of all northern Mexico at that time. Toward this for
midable outpost General Taylor row set face.
CHAPTER XII
QUARTERMASTER'S DUTIES FALL TO GRANT
IN August the army began to move up >tb the Rio
Grande, which runs for hundreds of miles through a semi-
arid land of mesquit and cactus, and is only navigable (in
any sense of the word) to Camargo. At this latitude and
altitude February is warm as May, and the heat of mid
summer is terrific ; therefore the forces were compelled to
march at night. The cavalry and artillery took their way
up the south side of the river, — that is to say, on Mexican
soil, — while the rest of the command went by means of
small steamers. These steamers were of the kind Lincoln
described : when they moved they could n't whistle, and
when they whistled they could n't move. As only part
of the command could ride, the officers played cards to
decide who should walk.
At Camargo, Grant, now full second lieutenant, was
made regimental quartermaster, which is a position re
quiring activity, resource, and regularity of habit It is
an important position, and one which cannot be well filled
by sleepy or dull-witted men. An army must be fed; its
supplies must not go dotray nor fall behind ; its ammuni
tion must be ready and its ambulances on hand. And to
always have these necessaries of an army in readiness is
no small duty ; it means early rising, methodical habits,
and careful scrutiny of details.
This appointment seems to show the approval of his
superiors at this time. A picture taken on this campaign
shows him to have been a slight, boyish figure, with rather
long, square-cut hair depending from a gig-top cap. In
74
QUARTERMASTER'S DUTIES FALL TO GRANT 75
spite of his youth, he must have been considered a trusty,
energetic man of good administrative ability. His duties
he himself has outlined: "Each day, after the troops had
started, the tents and cooking-utensils had to be made
into packages, so that they could be lashed to the backs
of the mules. Sheet-iron kettles and mess-chests were
inconvenient articles to transport in that way. It took
several hours to get ready to start each morning, and by
the time we were ready some of the mules first loaded
would be tired of standing so long with their loads on
their backs. Sometimes one would start to run, bowing
his back and kicking up until he scattered his load ; others
would lie down and try to disarrange their loads by rolling
on them. ... I am not aware of ever having used a
profane expletive in my life, but I would have the charity
to excuse those who may have done so, if they were in
charge of a train of Mexican pack-mules of the time."
Nothing shows Grant's equable temper, his command
over himself, like serving as quartermaster in this land of
burning sun and scant grass.
He could tug and sweat and wrestle with a camp outfit
each day, and not lose his temper. His men found him
kind and patient ; his commanders found him always resource
ful and prompt. He was learning many lessons of practical
warfare during these laborious marches.
The ground from Camargo rises by broad slopes covered
with mesquit and other low-growing trees; but grass is
scanty and water precious, especially in September. It
was so hot that many of the men marched in their under
clothes. Each day the columns began to move before
three o'clock, and the entire march for the day was made
without pause. However, as they rose the heat lessened
somewhat, and as they neared the mountains the water
and forage grew more abundant. In spite of heat, drought,
and scant forage, Grant brought his command through in
good order.
Monterey was the principal town in northern Mexico
at that time. In 1846 it possessed fifteen or twenty thou
sand people; it has possibly sixty thousand to-day. In
that day it could not be called a city in the usual sense
76 LIFE OF GRANT
of the word. It was, in fact, a fortified town of Mexican
Indians, governed by a few Mexican- Spanish priests and
soldiers. It had not four houses which were two stories
high, except the church and the "bishop's palace." Its
plaza was merely an open, unpaved square, surrounded
by low adobe or soft stone buildings, with a church on
the southern side, and a small fountain in the center. It
was built of a soft rock which abounds in the hills near
by, a deposit but little harder than clay, which the
builders cut out in huge blocks and laid in thick, low
walls.
The people were a mixture of several tribes of Indians
with Spanish pioneers, and were a small, dark, and peace
able people, not given to war with men, brave to war
against the elements. They wore heavy conical hats of
fur or palm, and carried with singular charm and grace
their gay serapes. The men were small, round-limbed,
and unimposing, but capable of great endurance. The
women were short and stout, and those of the peon class
resembled the Comanche women. They were devoted to
the Catholic faith as they understood it, and had in this
religion their strongest emotion. Patriotism was not yet
possible to them.
They had founded their town many years before, there
in the valley of the San Juan de Monterey. It is a mag
nificent spot, a wide, flat valley, with noble mountains
from three to seven thousand feet in altitude walling it in.
To the west is the main range, a sierra-edged, spectacular
wall, which rises, sharp-cut as cardboard, seven thousand
feet into the sky. To the southeast a fine peak called La
Silla (" the saddle ") rises five thousand feet in height.
On every side of Monterey, dark, arid, inaccessible moun
tains stand, except on the northeast. Taylor approached
from the east, and camped about three miles from the
city at a fine group of springs, shaded by noble pecan-
and walnut-trees.
The plain before the city was quite level, and covered
with mesquit and other forms of chaparral. Apparently
nothing hindered marching directly upon the town. Tay
lor soon discovered, however, that the citizens had made
QUARTERMASTER'S DUTIES FALL TO GRANT 77
careful preparations for receiving him. Directly to the
north of the city a most formidable fortress, built of a
dark stone, — not adobe, — was planted. It had been in
tended for a church, but was finally made a fortress of
great strength, with massive walls, circled by a ditch. It
was heavily manned, and to attack it meant loss of life.
To the west, and guarding the Saltillo road, which is
the main highway of northern Mexico and connects the
city of Monterey with Saltillo and San Luis Potosi, stood
an imposing structure called the bishop's palace. This
building, begun many years before in times of danger,
had heavy walls and a secret underground channel of
escape. Behind it, and commanding both the Saltillo
road and the town, were planted nearly a score of cannon.
Across the highway, on a hill of lesser height, was
another battery to defend a branch of the Saltillo road,
while to the south and east were other cannon. General
Ampudia, with ten or eleven thousand men, was in com
mand. To judge from his picture, he was a fine, soldierly
figure, and a man of high intelligence. The defenses as
planned were admirable, and the American army seemed
little enough for such a siege in an enemy's country, en
tirely cut off from aid. The whole campaign would have
been criminal in its audacity had not the Texas troops
convinced General Taylor of the unmilitary character of
the people.
Quartermaster Grant now waited to see what General
Taylor, who had already become his hero, would do.
Here was a town with complete defenses. It had no
weak spot, apparently. How would Taylor attack?
He resorted to the familiar and primitive method : he
prepared to flank the enemy. He sent his engineers to
the west to see if there were not a way to dislodge the
enemy at the bishop's palace. They reported that the
hill upon which the palace stood was detached, and that
it could be stormed from the southwest. To carry the
bishop's palace meant complete command of the main
artery of the republic, through which the supplies of the
city had mainly to come. Also, the guns of the fort
could be turned upon other forts, and upon the town itself.
78 LIFE OF GRANT
On the morning of the 2Oth General Taylor said to
General Worth : " General, take your division and make
the attempt to dislodge the enemy to the north and east
I shall consider your attack the main movement."
Lieutenant Grant remained with the eastern division
of the army, and all day he watched with eager eyes to
see the inexorable advance of the Northern army. Guns
were run forward to a ravine before the " Black Fort,"
and planted where they could shell the enemy, while
reconnoitering parties were out to the east. This was
indeed war, grand and terrible, to the boy. Taylor
seemed possessed of some supernatural power as he
coolly gave orders to shell the town, and sent men to the
right and left, and pushed his columns closer and closer
to the town's walls.
As regimental quartermaster Lieutenant Grant had no
business to leave camp ; but the excitement grew too
great for his young blood,* and when the cannonading
thickened, he mounted a horse and rode to the front.
He reached the line just in time to hear the order,
" Charge! " which meant death to many brave fellows.
The men pushed forward, and came under fire of the
town. As they drew nearer the musketry from the house
tops joined the din.
The little quartermaster was with the charge, and was
the only man mounted, and therefore a special target for
bullets ; but he escaped unhurt. Colonel Garland, leading
the charge on the Black Fort, exceeded his general's
intentions, and the Americans suffered great loss. At
length Colonel Garland, seeing the folly of a direct charge,
"retreated sidewise " to the east, and joined the division
under Taylor's immediate command, which was vigorously
assaulting the lower end of the city.
Partly encircling the town on the west and east there
is a deep ravine, with a small stream flowing during cer
tain seasons of the year. Over this stream there were
* In a letter to his folks he said : " I do not mean that you shall ever hear
of my shirking my duty in battle. My new post of quartermaster is con
sidered to afford an officer an opportunity to be relieved from fighting, but I
do not and cannot see it in that light. You have always taught me that the
post of danger is the post of duty."
QUARTERMASTER'S DUTIES FALL TO GRANT 79
built several low bridges. A few houses stood outside
these bridges, and two fortifications. The people natu
rally retreated across the stream, but their soldiers made
a stern stand there. On one of the bridges stood a statue
of the Virgin, and there the Mexicans fought with true
battle frenzy.
An Irish captain rushed up to General Taylor.
" General, we '11 never clear that bridge while the saint
stands there. They are fighting for the saint. Shall I
smash her down, general?"
" If you think best," Taylor replied.
The captain, who well knew the power of the saint,
battered down the pedestal, and tumbled the gilded figure
into the water below. When the Mexicans saw their
saint fall, they raised a hoarse cry of rage, and made one
last desperate rush, fighting with clubs, spears, and
stones ; then retired in despair, leaving the bridge in the
hands of the Northern army. Grant was in the thick of
the charge, still on his horse. The city was not yet won,
however.
Every housetop was manned by gunners lying behind
low parapets of sand-bags or blocks of adobe; and the
Northern men paused, after crossing the bridge, and
scattered out into the side streets. Every street leading
west was swept by guns on the plaza, or by the muskets
of the citizens on the housetops. Nevertheless, ten com
panies, under command of Colonel Garland, forced their
way by successive rushes from street to street up to the
very last barricade of the plaza. Quartermaster Grant
was there on his horse, in the thick of the punishment;
but his head was clear, his faculties at their best.
The command could neither go forward nor back, and
the battle hung poised till Colonel Garland at last dis
covered his ammunition to be running low. It then
became necessary to get word to General Twiggs, his
division commander, calling for ammunition or reinforce
ments. The colonel called for volunteers.
" Men, I 've got to send some one back to General
Twiggs. It 's a dangerous job, and I don't like to order
any man to do it. Who '11 volunteer? "
80 LIFE OF GRANT
" I will," said Quartermaster Grant, promptly. " I 've
got a horse."
" You 're just the man to do it. Keep on the side
streets, and ride hard."
Grant needed no direction, for he was among the best
horsemen in the entire command, and had been instructed
by the Comanches. He swung himself over his saddle,
and, with one heel behind the cantle, and one hand
wound in his horse's mane, dashed at full gallop down a
side street leading to the north, a street which looked
like a dry canal. At every crossing he was exposed to
view, and the enemy, getting his range, sent a slash of
bullets after him as he flashed past. Hanging thus, he
forced his horse to leap a four-foot wall. He rode to the
north till safely out of fire ; then, regaining his seat, he
turned to the east, and in a few moments' time drew rein
before General Twiggs, and breathlessly uttered his
message.
Twiggs gave the order to collect the ammunition, but
before it could be done the troops came pouring back.
That night ended the fighting ; for while the " demon
strations " at the east ended thus unsuccessfully, General
Worth, with his Texas troops, was making way inexorably
toward the plaza from the west.
The houses of Monterey are all built on the street,
with the yards behind, and these yards are separated
from each other by walls of adobe. Worth's men, accus
tomed to these Mexican towns, battered down the doors,
and with picks and axes cut through these soft walls, and,
thus under cover, advanced steadily from house to house.
The army ate its way, like some huge worm, rod by rod,
until General Ampudia felt the prolongation of the strug
gle to be useless, and on the morning of September 24,
1846, the garrison surrendered.
The people of Monterey loved their city, and fought
for it well, even desperately ; but they had no adequate
armament. Many were armed with slings and spears.
Their guns were nearly as destructive to the friend be
hind as to the enemy in front. And yet they held at bay
one of the most daring bands of fighters ever called
QUARTERMASTER'S DUTIES FALL TO GRANT 81
together. The honors were not all on the side of the
invading army. Grant was deeply moved at the sight
of the Mexican garrison marching out of town. It took
away the last vestige of joy over the victory.
During the day of rest which followed he ran across
several old West Point classmates, and two old George
town schoolmates, Carr B, White and Chilton A. White,
who had volunteered a few months before, and who were
very glad to meet him. He had little time to talk, for
he was very busy with his quartermaster duties. He
was up bright and early, and almost always on the go.
His ride for ammunition was much talked of among
the men, and everybody praised him. He was a young
fellow oi good habits and good company. It was all
wonderful business to the young men, and they thought
it a very rare outing — now that the city was captured.
"Though behaving with such gallantry," said his friend
Longstreet, " Grant's name did not appear in the reports.
In those days it was hard for a young officer to get men
tion unless he did something of very conspicuous bravery.
After a man got to be captain or colonel a brevet was
more easily obtained. They were sometimes obtained
for merely looking at a battle."
CHAPTER XIIi
GRANT JOINS GENERAL SCOTT
AFTER the taking of Monterey there was a pause ot
XJL half a year in order that the Democratic adminis
tration might take thought concerning itself and the
future. It was a sad dilemma for President Polk. He
must go to war, and yet war advanced the fame of oppo
sition men. The added slave territory must be had, and
yet the taking of it was likely to put a Whig in the Presi
dential chair.
The victories of old " Rough and Ready " Taylor were
already resounding through the North. The taking of
" the city of Monterey," in popular conception, was a
splendid achievement. In the imagination of the Ameri
cans at home, it was a city of castles, with turrets and
carved battlements and shining domes, instead of an
adobe Indian town with only three or four houses above
ten feet in height. " The victor of Monterey and of
Matamoros" was rapidly being advanced to the position
of popular hero and Presidential candidate, and the
administration determined to cripple him, if possible. It
was decided at length to discredit his line of attack, and
to put General Winfield Scott, the general-in-chief of the
army, into the field in person.
This also had its dangers; for Scott, like all well-fur
nished Americans, believed himself capable of being
President, and had a troublesome " knack of success " in
a campaign. However, there was no help for it; there
were no Democratic generals handy. In such way are
82
GRANT JOINS GENERAL SCOTT 83
the affairs of a great nation run; yet it ambles forward,
awkward, undecided, irresistible.
General Winfield Scott was an old man of huge physi
cal proportions and prodigious vanity, but a good soldier
and a just man. He was called " Old Fuss and Feathers,"
and was very widely different in all ways from General
Taylor, except in the soldierly quality; both were ex
cellent commanders.
To Lieutenant Grant General Scott was a very won
derful person, and occupied one of the most exalted posi
tions on earth, and might be forgiven for being conscious
of his glory. Not only was he the chief commander of
the army of the United States, but he was already a
storied hero. He had led the army to victory at Chip-
pewa and at Lundy's Lane in 1812. He was the author
of " A System of General Military Regulations for the
Army." He had been a great figure in the Black Hawk
War, and the commander-in-chief in the Seminole War.
He had been a personage present, at least in name, at
every Fourth of July celebration in every Northern vil
lage, and he had been a resplendent figure at reviews at
West Point. No wonder the boy lieutenant looked for
ward with keenest interest to the arrival of General Scott
in Mexico. • *'.:>)
Scott's plan of campaign was necessarily at variance
with Taylor's. He had all along insisted that Mexico
City should be attacked directly from the East, with
Vera Cruz as a landing-point ; and thitherward he promptly
pushed his way, with reinforcements. He also called
from General Taylor nearly all of his regular troops,
leaving him only the volunteers, for which the old West-
Pointer had a very carelessly concealed contempt. Lieu
tenant Grant was transferred, with his regiment, from
General David Twiggs, under Taylor's command, to the
division of General William Worth, under Scott. He
therefore retraced the severe journey to Camargo and to
Matamoros, thence by uncomfortable, much overloaded
transports to Vera Cruz, where Scott was assembling his
little army of invasion, like Cortez of the sixteenth cen
tury.
84 LIFE OF GRANT
The seaport of Vera Cruz, lying nearly due east of the
city of Mexico, was an old town, built then, as now, of
stone and adobe, in the one-storied, Spanish fashion, and,
excepting its several superb churches, it was made up of
flat-roofed, unimposing buildings. It is a place of tropical
heat and of extreme humidity. Set as it is almost under
the burning sun, on the shore of a tepid sea, with bad
drainage and inefficient government, it is not a desirable
place for a Northern man to land in during the month of
May or June. The heat is like that of a steaming blanket.
Night brings little relief. In the humid air everything
ferments, rots, sends up poisonous gases, whereas in the
dry climate of the interior refuse soon becomes dust, and
is odorless. The very soil was full of germs of disease.
Yet it was, and is, the main port of entry for Mexico
City.
Some three miles to the south of the city is a small,
low-lying island called Sacrificios Island, because, so
tradition runs, the people in olden times were annually
accustomed thereon to sacrifice their young men and
maidens to appease the gods. On this island Scott made
landing in all military pomp, with bands playing " Yankee
Doodle," and the French, Spanish, and English looking
on from their vessels. The site of Vera Cruz is a sand
beach, but back of it, in a half-circle, runs a series of low
hills. On these hills Scott encamped and planted his
siege-guns. Quartermaster Grant is said to have per
sonally supervised this siege, in pursuance of his policy
to see all that went on.
It was all a battle of cannons, and the infantry had
little to do but swelter on the sand and fight flies and
fleas. The city soon capitulated, and Scott, aware of the
danger to his men of longer stay in this land of yellow
fever, marched, in imposing review, in at the south gate
and out at the north gate, and started for Jalapa, the next
considerable town on the main highway to Mexico City.
There was a certain sublimity of audacity in the un
hesitating march of that little army of ten thousand into
an unknown country, against a nation of seven millions
of people, and over gigantic mountain-ranges. Cortez
GRANT JOINS GENERAL SCOTT 85
marched, moved by dreams of gold, of splendor, of con
quest. Scott's army trudged mountainward, moved by a
sort of national bravado, or, like Grant, because, being
soldiers, their duty was to follow where their superiors
led. In a letter to a friend Grant said : " I am heartily
tired of the whole war." Its essential injustice oppressed
him.
For the first few days the heat was excessive; the
woods were full of poisonous plants and noxious insects ;
and Grant, again regimental quartermaster, had plenty to
occupy himself with. He was a keen observer of all that
went on. He had an eye to the beauty of the palms.
He counted nearly two hundred kinds of birds. Several
of his comrades speak of his habit of looking at things.
His letters home are filled with details.
The soil is at first covered with prickly-pear cactus and
sparse grass. A little farther on the road enters low
foot-hills covered with a wild tangle of strange plants and
trees. Half-naked charcoal-burners and herders inhabit
this level. A little higher are upland plains, with better
grass — a land quite like the prairie of Texas. These in
turn are left behind, and low hills appear. The vegetation
thickens. Palms of various sorts rise against the sky like
vast plumes. The people live in thatched huts, with walls
of cane or stakes set close together. The trees are over
loaded with parasites, and all sorts of strange and beauti
ful flowers blaze like crimson and yellow stars in the deep
green foliage. The giant mountains to the west are
completely hidden by the forest of the foot-hills.
Just on the edge of the first considerable heights the
leading division encountered the enemy in force. Upon
a sugar-loaf hill which rose beside the road Santa Ana
had erected fortifications, and was present in person with
about fifteen thousand men. The story of his march to
Cerro Gordo is incredible. A courier some weeks before
had fallen into the hands of the Mexicans, bearing upon
his person the valuable information that Scott had weak
ened Taylor on the north to make an attack by way of
Vera Cruz, and that Taylor had only a small force of
volunteers.
86 LIFE OF GRANT
With this knowledge General Santa Ana conceived
the tremendous plan of beating the two invading armies
in detail. This involved a march of at least a thousand
miles (four hundred and six leagues, the Mexicans say)
in a land of ever-burning sunlight and scanty vegetation,
and over almost waterless wastes. The line of march led
from Mexico City to Saltillo over the inland plateau, which
is like the plains of Arizona, thence back to Cerro Gordo.
No American army could have made that journey in the
same time. No one who has not passed over this burning
waste, where the dust columns weirdly waltz, and the
shadowless heavens blaze with heat, can realize it. To
ride it on horseback is courageous ; to double-quick it as
these poor peon soldiers did was heroic. Santa Ana
rode in a carriage, his officers on horses. The peons
trotted, parched and burning by day, chilled to the heart
at night, thirsty, hungry, and with bleeding feet. They
met Taylor at Buena Vista on an open plain cut with
arroyos, or deep ditch-like ravines, with high cactus-cov
ered hills on either hand. Santa Ana, with superb confi
dence, gave Taylor an hour in which to surrender. The
stern old soldier replied, in effect, that all eternity was
long enough for them to surrender in, and the fight
began. The Mexicans were defeated crushingly. But
Santa Ana turned and hastened south at such pace Taylor
could not follow; for these dark little men, with their
limber, slender legs, are marvelous of foot ; they can trot
all day in a sun whose heat would melt a Northern man's
brains to jelly.
As he went the desperate commander relentlessly im
pressed new troops, drilling them at night and before
daybreak, and so arrived at Cerro Gordo with an army
of fifteen thousand fairly well-disciplined men. It was a
marvelous achievement, and let the whole honor be to
the tireless little Mexicans, who knew not what they
were fighting for, and had small stake even in victory.
Santa Ana, therefore, with batteries on either side of
the road where it enters the foot-hills, was waiting for
Scott. His troops were worn, ragged, dusty, but they
were an army capable of fight.
GRANT JOINS GENERAL SCOTT 87
Scott, who had remained at Cerro Gordo to see the
last arrangements made, hastened up, and with his engi
neering corps (which included George B. McClellan and
Robert E. Lee) began his reconnoitering. It did not
take them long to arrange a flank movement. On the
night of the 1 7th, through roads cut round the mountains,
the men dragged howitzers by hand, hilariously as if on a
frolic, but so silently that Santa Ana's men slept undis
turbed. Santa Ana afterward said he did n't think a
goat could have approached from that quarter. The
ground was rough, and in some places so steep the guns
were hoisted by means of ropes ; but in early morning
the invading army fell upon the Mexican reserve forces in
the rear of the forts.
In a letter dated " Tiping Ahualco, Mexico, May 3,
1847," Lieutenant Grant graphically and clearly sets forth
the battle. His spelling could not conceal the clearness of
his story.
On the night of the 15th Gen. Worth arrived at Plana del
Rio three miles from the Battle ground. Gen. Twiggs with his
Division had been there several days preparing for an attack.
By the morning of the i yth the way was completed to go around
the Pass, Cierra Gorda, and make the attach in the rear as well
as in the front. The difficulties to surmount made the under
taking almost equal to Bonaparte's Crossing the Alps. Cierra
Gorda is a long Narrow Pass, the Mountains towering far above
the road on either side. Some five of the peaks were fortified
and armed with Artillery and Infantry.
At the outlett of the Mountain Gorge a strong Breastwork
was thrown up and 5 pieces placed in embrasure sweaping the
road so that it would have been impossible for any force in the
world to have advanced. Immediately behind this is a peak of
the Mountains several hundred feet higher than any of the others
and commanding them. It was on this hight that Gen. Twiggs
made his attack. As soon as the Mexicans saw this hight taken
they knew the day was up with them. Santa Anna Vamoused
with a small part of his force leaving about 6000 to be taken
prisoners with all their arms supplies &c. Santa Anna's loss
could not have been less than 8000 killed, wounded, taken
prisoners and misen. The pursuit was so close upon the retreat
ing few that Santa Anna's Carriage and Mules were taken and
88 LIFE OF GRANT
with them his wooden leg and some 20 or 30 thousand dollars
in money.
Between the thrashing the Mexicans have got at Vuene Vista,
Vera Cruz and Ceirra Gorda they are so completely broken up
that if we only had transportation we could go to the City of
Mexica and where ever else we liked without resistance. Gar
risons could be established in all the important towns and the
Mexicans prevented from ever raising another Army. Santa
Anna is said to be at Orazaba at the foot of a mountain always
covered with snow and of the same name. He has but a small
force.
Orazaba looks from here as if you could almost throw a stone
to it but it looked the same from lalapa some fifty miles back
and was even visable from Vera Cruz. Since we left the Sea
Coast the improvement in the appearance of the people and the
stile of building has been very visable over anything I had seen
in Mexico before. The road is one of the best in the world.
The scenery is beautiful and a great deal of magnificent table
land spreads out above you and below you. lalapa is the most
beautiful place that I ever saw. It is about 4000 feet above Sea
and being in the Torrid Zone, they have the everlasting Spring
Fruit and vegitables the year around. I saw there a great many
handsome ladies and more well dressed men than I had ever seen
before in the Republic. From lalapa we marched to Perote and
walked quietly into the Strong Castle that you no doubt have
read about. It is a great work. One Brigade, the one I belong
to is now 20 miles in advance of Perote. Soon no doubt we
will advance upon Pueblo.
Grant was instructed in other ways by the battle of
Cerro Gordo. The prisoners were paroled at once, and
their arms thrown into piles and burned, a proceeding
not lost on Quartermaster Grant. Santa Ana escaped
with about seven thousand men, and retreated rapidly to
Mexico City, where he hastily prepared to make his last
stand. The Northern army pushed directly toward the
heart of the nation, halting next at Jalapa for rest and
food. The battle of Cerro Gordo, like the battle of Bueno
Vista on the north, opened the way to the capital. The
army of victory moved on some twelve or fifteen miles to
Jalapa, one of the most beautiful towns in all Mexico.
GRANT JOINS GENERAL SCOTT 89
Here the troops lay for some weeks, getting much
needed rest and food. Jalapa is some forty-five hundred
feet above the sea, and has abundant water, pure air, and
an equable climate. The surroundings of hill and pasture
and stone wall are curiously like the New England hiH-
country, with greater vegetation and higher mountains in
vista. The people of Jalapa are red-brown of color, and
a fine, well-formed race. They were decidedly friendly
in a few days — as soon, in fact, as they perceived the
good discipline of the army.
General Scott carried wise government with him. He
abolished the labor tax which was levied by the city of
Jalapa on farmers bringing goods to sell in the streets,
and in other matters ruled like a wise and humane man.
His was a large and liberal mind, and while he loved to
impress people with his importance and position, he was
a dispassionate and just conqueror. He aimed to make
the conquered people his friends ; and unquestionably his
good discipline and his wise regulations of traffic did
much to keep down insurrection in the cities he was
forced to garrison lightly and leave behind. The small
lieutenant had his keen eyes open to all this also. The
soldiers of the American army were not exactly Christian
gentlemen, if the tales of their lust and greed which the
natives of Mexico still tell are true. Taylor's volunteers
were so notorious as outragers of women that Scott issued
a special order to stop murder and rapine.
While the army needed rest, it was also desirable to
follow the retreating Mexican forces as soon as possible,
to prevent reinforcements and fortifications on the great
highway from Jalapa to the Central Valley. General
Worth was sent forward to Perote, where a strong castle
was said to be situated, with orders to siege and hold it
till the main army came up.
The road from Jalapa climbs, within a few miles, two
thousand feet, and comes at last upon a high, wide valley
plain, semi-arid, yet highly cultivated. Just at the point
where the plateau ends and the descent to the " warm
country " begins was a little flat, mud-walled town, with
90 LIFE OF GRANT
a low, strong-walled, four-square building of stone stand
ing near, with watch-towers at the corners, and a building
occupying the inclosed yard. This was El Castillo de
Perote. It was capable of great resistance ; but the heart
of battle was gone out of these naturally peaceful people,
and they surrendered at once, leaving the road open to
the city of Puebla.
CHAPTER XIV
THE WONDERFUL INLAND MARCH
ACROSS the level, dusty plain covered with hedges of
Jr\. the pulque plant, and sown to grain and planted
with sugar-cane, the army marched, with eyes on myste
rious mountains, and tongues tasting strange fruits and
foods. It was a re-reading of the history of Cortez, to
men like Grant. This land was old — old, almost, as
Egypt. Its soil was mellow with a thousand plowings
and soaked with a million suns. On every side the quick-
moving small men and brown women, in cool garments,
trod behind patient mules, or in files, carrying on their
backs crates of fowls, bags of grain, or bottles of water.
Grant saw it all — the birds, the cattle, the flowers. In a
letter written to his parents in May he alludes to his
duties and to his pleasures:
My dear parents: We are progressing steadily toward the
Mexican capital. Since I last wrote you my position has been
rendered more responsible and laborious. . . . But I must not
talk to you all the time about the War. I shall try to give you
a few descriptions of what I see in this country. It has in it
many wonderful things. . . . It is very mountainous. Its
hillsides are covered with tall palms whose waving leaves present
a splendid appearance. They toss to and fro in the wind like
plumes in a helmet, their deep green glistening in the sunshine or
glittering in the moon beams in the most beautiful way. I have
been much delighted with the Mexican birds. . . . Many have
a plumage that is superlatively splendid but the display of their
music does not equal that of their colors. . . . They beat ours
in show but do not equal them in harmony.
But I hear the " taps " as I write and must be on the move.
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92 LIFE OF GRANT
I have written this letter with my sword fastened on my side and
my pistol within reach, not knowing but that the next moment I
may be called into battle again.
It was all unreal as a picture of Mesopotamia. What
lay beyond ? This was but the portal of the storied nation ;
the great and famous city of Mexico was still in the dis
tance. When they thought of what they had risked in
venturing thus into a populous unknown land, the men of
the small army wished themselves at home.
The American general was apparently in desperate
straits. The Whigs and Democrats were struggling to
seize and hold all the advantages of the victories he had
won. About four thousand of his men were nearing the
end of their enlistment. In order to allow them to return
'through Vera Cruz before the worst of the season set in,
Scott very generously discharged them at once and sent
them home. This reduced his force in the field to about
five thousand men. He was not only unable to maintain
a suitable garrison, but unable to hold to his depot of sup
plies. Thus with five thousand men he cut loose from
his base of munitions, and marched against a city of two
hundred thousand inhabitants in a nation of several million
people. Certainly this was bravery, if not foolhardiness.
He felt, as did all his men, no doubt, the manifest destiny
of the American States behind him. Certainly he knew
that the President was his enemy.
Nothing was lost upon the small lieutenant wrestling
with the mules in the wagon-train. He understood
Scott's bravery. He mused deeply upon this cutting
loose from all supplies. He aided in living off the enemy,
and he came to believe also in the manifest destiny of the
American republic. A very inconsiderable but valuable
man was this lieutenant busily bringing the wagon-train
forward, and growing a red beard meanwhile to appear
less youthful. He was also acquiring the use of whisky
and tobacco. Elsewise his habits were of the best, and
his tongue was still unused to foul and profane words.
He was being educated in the rough school of war, and
educated in the way which is lasting and deep-laid.
THE WONDERFUL INLAND MARCH 93
Puebla fell into the invaders' hands without resistance.
It was a fine city — the finest in the nation, excepting only
the capital. It had superb cathedrals and convents with
magnificent gardens. It had irrigating-ditches, and was
surrounded by well-tilled fields of grain and maguey
plants. In the really splendid plaza the invaders stacked
arms, and looked about them with astonishment that such
a city should so easily yield to assault. Directly before
it, and separating it from the valley and city of Mexico, is
the mightiest range of mountains on the American conti
nent. Popocatepetl is 17,800 feet in height, and Iztacci-
huatl, slightly lower, lifts a snowy turban into the sky a
little farther to the north. These peaks are covered with
perennial snow. Over this chain of mountains the direct
road to Mexico ran, and thence Scott directed his engineers.
At this point two most grateful events occurred : re
inforcements sent by a reluctant Congress came in (on
the 1st of August), and the army was swelled to an
attacking force of ten thousand men ; and, of almost
equal importance, two men, long residents of the city of
Mexico, came in and offered their services as guides.
Their names were James Wright and Jonathan Fitzwaters.
They had been hid away in the city, but as the American
army approached they escaped and succeeded in reaching
Puebla unhurt.
An army without guides is like an animal without eyes.
These men supplied the advancing columns with informa
tion of vital value. The plans of Santa Ana, his forts, his
forces, were now known, and Scott and his engineers set
to work upon the attack like men playing a game of chess.
The Mexicans have a proverb, " Puebla is the first
heaven, Mexico is the second." The city of Mexico lies in
a wide, flat valley, at an altitude of seven thousand feet
above the sea. It is semi-arid and semi-tropic in char
acter, with a rainy season which begins in July or August,
and lasts for several weeks. During this time water is
abundant, and the somber brown fields and hot slopes of
withered grass awake to a vivid and gracious green.
Vegetation of all kinds grows with magical swiftness.
Water pours down from the mountains to the west,
94 LIFE OF GRANT
among whose tops the clouds gather and burst almost
every midday. Every reservoir fills up, and the city is
threatened with inundation. At such times the three
lake-beds Tezcuco, Chalco, and Zochmilcho become shin
ing expanses in the vivid green of the valley floor.
On the shores of these lakes, and set in the fields of
maguey and wheat and cane, are small Indian villages of
low adobe walls, each village having one beautiful struc
ture, its church, with chime of bells, tiled dome, and grace
ful tower. In the city of Mexico itself there are scores
of noble churches.
It was in August during the rainy season when Scott's
army looked down upon the beautiful valley, with its
lakes shining like pools of melted silver, and its green
everywhere meshed with streams of mountain water. It
was a beautiful sight, and the men raised a cheer as they
topped the divide. It was all that imagination or poetry
had pictured it, and some of the more thoughtful experi
enced a feeling of awe as they fell into line down that
western slope to capture this great city of such age and
power and wealth.
On the shore of Lake Chalco, at a little Indian village
called Ayotla, Scott collected his army, and began to
reconnoiter. His guides explained to him that there were
eight gates to the city. The city was surrounded by
dikes and ditches to turn aside the mountain water during
the rainy season. At certain points in these dikes were
bridges and gates defended by fortifications. Directly in
front was the ancient thoroughfare between Lake Chalco
and Lake Zochmilcho. To the right was a road passing
between Chalco and Tezcuco, defended by a high, abrupt
mound called El Penon. The other gates were to the
west and north, and Scott, after the report of his engi
neers and guides, decided to move round the lakes Chalco
and Zochmilcho, and attack the city in the rear. A bad
roadway circled the lake close to the mountains on the
southeast, and along this causeway the army filed, and
on the 1 8th of August entered Tlalpan, a little Indian
town situated on the edge of the rising ground, about ten
miles south of the city of Mexico,
THE WONDERFUL INLAND MARCH 95
To the west of Tlalpan lies a vast overflow of lava
called El Pedregale. It evidently came from a crater
some miles southwest of Tlalpan, and ran in a prodigious
slow stream to the north. As it cooled it cracked and
broke into orderless and savage masses of sharp rock,
black and porous. In this desolate mass, and adding to
its ferocious appearance, cactus plants had fastened, in
company with other gaunt, stunted forms of vegetation
unfamiliar to a Northern man. It was popularly believed
by the Mexicans to be impassable.
This mass of rock, heaped and seamed and blasted,
runs irregularly northward, separating the village of Con-
treras from Tlalpan, and the haciendas (estates) called
San Antonio and Coapa from San Angel and Tacubaya.
A roadway skirts this rock from Tlalpan to Churubusco,
and on this road, at San Antonio and Churubusco, were
garrisons and cannon.
Scott again determined to flank these positions. His
engineers found a way, without great difficulty, across
El Pedregale, and the Americans fell upon Contreras
on the morning of the 2Oth of August. The assault
made in the early light had all the appalling elements of
a surprise in battle. It was a matter of not more than
ten or fifteen minutes, but it took the fighting heart out
of the Mexican army.
Men and officers alike were amazed and terrified by
the power and the ferocity of these Northern men. Va
lencia's army broke into flight, and streamed back into
the city, bellowing as they ran : " Here come the Yan
kees! Here come the Yankees!"
Lieutenant Grant was with Colonel Garland's division,
which was meanwhile confronting the hacienda San
Antonio; but when Contreras was taken, San Antonio
was evacuated, and the two armies advanced on the two
parallel roads which skirt El Pedregale and lead directly
toward Mexico. The next stronghold which presented a
most formidable point was the church and convent in the
little village of Churubusco, which stands on the level
plain surrounded by tilled fields marked out by ditches.
In this land every cabin has the wall of a fortress, and
96 LIFE OF GRANT
every church is a castle. Churubusco was a low church
with a noticeably high wall, having but two entrances, a
side gate to the south, with the main entrance to the
west. Before it all huts had been leveled and breast
works constructed at a few rods from the wall. It looked
unassailable; but at the word, the Northern soldiers
started across the open field, impetuous, unwavering as so
many bulldogs. They went over the earthworks, silenced
the cannon, raised ladders against the wall, and in an
incredibly short time sent the stars and stripes, like a
crimson flower, soaring up the flagpole. So great was
the demoralization in the ranks of the Mexicans, the troops
could have entered the city upon the heels of the fugi
tives. Scott's motives were noble, and his aim was to
prevent further bloodshed, but unquestionably he made a
mistake at this point which prolonged the war.
All the Mexicans expected his entry, as a batch of
intercepted letters of the time show. The city was in
terror. The streets were filled with Valencia's fleeing
soldiers, and Santa Ana's troops streamed about the city
distractedly, worn, and covered with mud. The whole
city shuddered as if menaced by flood or by fire, and in
despair awaited Scott's invading hosts.
CHAPTER XV
GRANT AT MOLING DEL REY
WILD charges arose against Santa Ana and other
officers. They were accused of letting jealousy
of each other destroy their patriotism. Santa Ana was
accused openly of having left Valencia to be swallowed
up at Contreras. The commander of the cavalry was
accused of cowardice, while Santa Ana himself was nearly
crazed with chagrin ; for at Churubusco the editor of the
" American Star " (a paper started a little later in Mexico
City) found blowing about in the mud scores of copies of
a grandiose address published by Santa Ana among his
troops.
" I count and rely," he ended, " upon the courage of
the brave men who have sworn to conquer or to perish
with me. Shall ten or twelve thousand men, let loose
among a population which detests them, have it in their
power to make us cower? No; we will chastise them;
and God, who protects the justice of nations, will visit
them with condign punishment. Let our motto be,
' Independence or death.' '
This was the proper spirit, and there is no question but
Santa Ana meant it. Incompetency on the part of the
officers does not alone explain their defeat. As a matter
of fact, the trouble lay deeper than even the personnel of
the army. The nation was organically weak. It was
not ready for such a war. Its rulers were hopelessly
divided. It was an Indian nation governed by Spaniards
or Spanish descendants, and the army was largely com
posed of peons forcibly impressed into service, and there
fore the entire army lacked the patriotism which includes
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98 LIFE OF GRANT
both the past and the future. They would defend with
frantic bravery their own city or province, but they could
not fight for the whole nation, because they had not yet
conceived an emotion so deep and broad.
A man who has always toiled like an ox, carrying grain
and dirt in baskets on his head, who has been driven into
the army with his arms tied behind him, is not likely to
stand erect in review, nor to fight heartily and with intelli
gence when the charge comes. Not all the men were of
this class, but many of them indisputably were. When
the Americans, yelling like wild-cats, with their teeth
clenched in jocular curses, leaped over their breastwork,
the peon soldiers fled. They could not comprehend such
intrepidity.
Again, Scott's army moved as a unit. Every man
knew that only victory could save him. He was in the
enemy's country. Each column had the unwavering
directness of a cannon-ball. It moved like a battering-
ram in a charge. It did not scatter, nor work blindly ;
every blow reached the heart. Its column pierced the
defenses of the Mexicans as the steel projectile of the
rifled siege-gun enters a wall of lath and plaster. It was
not the fault of general commanders that Matamoros and
Monterey and Buena Vista and Vera Cruz and Contreras
capitulated : it was because the nation was not in fact an
organism. Its people were not yet of national sympa
thies. The states were not loyal. Some were ready to
secede. The army was too new, too untried yet, to afford
power proportionate to the population. There were seven
millions of people, it is true ; but out of these to get an
army together required strenuous effort and the use of
the manacle.
Then, too, the wealthy citizens were afraid of a military
dictator, and each general's hand was believed to be
reaching for a despot's scepter. The church was alarmed,
and warring against the Puros, who were threatening their
revenues. As a matter of fact, a revolution had been put
down in the previous February only by the return of
Santa Ana from the north. The whole republic was torn
with religious and political jealousy and suspicion.
GRANT AT MOLING DEL REY 99
In view of these facts, the entire campaign by Scott
loses in honor while retaining its elements of almost
criminal bravery and high generalship. The plan had
the audacity of youth and the sober restraint of a really
great general. The actual fighting, in the light of the
Civil War, was inconsiderable. It would have been the
highest mercy for Scott to have entered Mexico at once ;
but he did not, and two bloody battles came on a month
later.
There now intervened a truce, during which neither
army was to strengthen its position or secure reinforce
ments, though Scott was allowed to procure supplies for
his army. Mr. Trist, on the part of the United States,
worked zealously to secure a treaty of peace. He de
manded all of Texas unequivocally, and also California
and New Mexico, for which a certain sum of money was
to be paid.
While this was going on, Scott, with Worth's division,
was occupying Tacubaya, a little Indian town on the edge
of the high ground, and about four miles from Mexico.
From near Tacubaya a low cape of rocky wooded land
extended irregularly into the flat land, and ended abruptly
in a high rocky knob. This knob formed a magnificent
natural fortress, and the castle of Chapultepec had been
built upon it and carefully fortified. The castle, a long,
low, thick-walled structure, covered almost the entire top.
On the sides and at the base were other fortifications,
and to the west and north a fine stone aqueduct made a
formidable wall, for its arches had been filled in with
blocks of adobe.
Back of this fortress, and also inclosed by the aqueduct,
was an old mill, which was reported to Scott to be Santa
Aria's cannon foundry. It was a plain square structure,
with a wide wall inclosing it. In the wall were sheds and
houses. It was heavily garrisoned, and seemed to be
highly valued by the enemy. It was the strongest for
tress yet held by the Mexicans, and to Quartermaster
Grant it seemed impregnable.
The truce was broken by the Mexicans, who were
driving in poor peons, with arms tied behind them, to
100 LIFE OF GRANT
reinforce the army ; and church bells were reported to be
on the way to Molino del Rey to be made into cannon.
Other preparations were also being made to strengthen
position, and Scott, on the 4th of September, declared
the armistice at an end, and marched upon Molino del
Rey from Tacubaya. During the night of the 7th the
army moved up within striking distance of the enemy,
and at daylight another impetuous charge was made, and
the enemy routed in a short time.
The mill was taken and lost and retaken several times
in a few minutes before Chapultepec seemed aware of it.
The Americans attacked it in squads, each squad intent
and clear-sighted. Commanders were hardly necessary
to these men ; each sergeant, each lieutenant, was a leader ;
and it was this superior judgment and decision on the
part of the private soldiers and subordinate officers which
won in the fight.
In this battle Quartermaster Grant was, as usual, in
the forefront. " You could not keep Grant out of battle,"
said Longstreet. The duties of quartermaster could not
shut him out of his command. He was in the first rush,
and had an exciting time of it. His friend Dent was
shot, and escaped being killed by Grant's intervention.
" While pursuing the Mexicans, who were crowding
into the mill for safety," the same witness reported, " he
stumbled over his friend, who was lying on the floor with
a wound in the thigh. Just as he was stooping to examine
Dent's wound, Grant came face to face with a Mexican
with musket raised to fire. The Mexican wheeled to
escape, and, seeing Lieutenant Thorne standing between
him and the door, was about to fire when Grant shouted
a warning. The Mexican was killed by Thorne ; then all
the squad rushed through into the inclosure of the mill,
hot on the track of the fleeing Mexicans. The charge
had been so impetuous that those who were behind the
parapets on the roof of the wall could not escape. They
were treed like wild-cats on the walls. Grant was every
where on the field. He was always cool, swift, and un
hurried in battle. He was as unconcerned, apparently,
as if it were a hail-storm instead of a storm of bullets.
GRANT AT CHAPULTEPEC.
The battle of Chapultepec, showing Grant's
regiment, the Fourth Infantry, in the fore
ground on the right.
GRANT AT MOLING DEL KEY 1OI
I had occasion to observe his superb courage under fire.
So remarkable was his bravery that mention was made of
it in the official reports, and I heard his colonel say : ' There
goes a man of fire.' '
It was not long before the cannon on Chapultepec
began to get the range, and the captors of Molino del
Rey were forced to evacuate the position. At that time
Grant believed that, had the fleeing Mexicans been closely
pursued, the Northern army could have entered Chapul
tepec behind them without loss of life. As it was, four
days later volunteers were called for to make an attack
upon Chapultepec. It seemed a desperate undertaking,
for, in the hands of a few determined men, the castle
would have held an army of ten thousand men at rifle-
range. It loomed high up over the walls at its base, with
cannon peering grimly from its parapets, with other
pieces half-way up its sides; and yet so confident were
the men of taking it that two volunteer columns of two
hundred and fifty men each were made up instantly.
They were led by Captain Silas Casey and Captain
Samuel McKenzie.
One division dug through the filled-up arches of the
aqueduct on the north, and assaulted that way. The
other went up the south side, over defenses, earthworks,
and ditches, and scaled the walls in the very shadow of
the thunderous cannon; and the citizens of Mexico, now
completely disheartened, saw the gay flag of the Ameri
cans flame over their last fortress. Pell-mell down the
aqueduct leading to the Balen gates, and along the aque
duct Veronica leading toward Tlaxpanna, the Mexicans
retreated. General Quitman commanded the column
moving toward Balen, and General Worth directed the
advance toward Tlaxpanna and San Cosme. Grant was
in the latter command, and from arch to arch of the
aqueduct he scudded with his companions, meeting with
little serious resistance till they came within gunshot of
Tlaxpanna, where the aqueduct turns at right angles
toward the city through the San Cosme gates. Grant's
impetuous but cool and determined advance kept him
with the hardiest of the private soldiers, and there was
102 LiFfi OF GRANT
but a squad of privates and one or two commissioned
officers with him when the cannon of Tlaxpanna were
reached.
As usual, the flat roofs of the houses were manned and
fortified. While waiting for reinforcements Grant did a
little reconnoitering on his own account, and finding a
way to the San Cosme road in the rear of the men serving
the cannon, he led a small force there, and drove the
enemy from their position to a second defense about
half-way to the San Cosme gates. They were too few in
numbers to hold this advanced position, and, together
with Captain Horace Brooks, who led the assault, Grant
retired to Tlaxpanna to wait reinforcements.
At a later hour in the day he reconnoitered on the
south side of the San Cosme road, and came to the con
clusion that he could use a small howitzer to good effect
from the steeple of the Church of San Cosme, which stood
about three hundred yards outside the San Cosme gates.
This church had at its eastern end and front a bell-
tower of moderate proportions, with a very narrow flight
of steps leading to it. Up these steps the impetuous
lieutenant and his squad tugged a small mountain howitzer,
and, putting it together beneath the bells, began to shell
the houses back of the gates, to the amazement and
scandal of the Mexicans, who seemed not to understand
that they might easily sally out and capture this audacious
Yankee. This bold and ingenious exploit was seen by
General Worth, who sent Lieutenant Pemberton to bring
the quartermaster to him.
" This is mighty fine work, sir. Every shot tells. I '11
send you another gun."
Grant saluted, — " Thank you, general," — and took the
extra gun, knowing well he could not use reinforcements
in the narrow space of the belfry. He was aware, also,
that a lieutenant could n't by any chance know more than
a general.
That night ended the Mexican War. General Santa
Ana fled to Qtieretaro, leaving the city of Mexico to its
fate. The City Council, in the absence of the national
government, entered upon a discussion of peace measures.
GRANT AT MOLING DEL KEY IO3
In fact, they met Scott that night, and attempted to get
him to sign articles of peace outside the city. But Scott,
who loved parade, but was also a loyal soldier, replied :
" Gentlemen, I will sign anything in the city that I
will out of it, and I intend to march into your city in
triumph, unrestricted by any articles of capitulation."
This he did, and it was a bitter day to the Mexicans
when they saw the big gray old Yankee general, arrayed
in his best uniform, and bestriding his biggest charger,
entering their city and taking possession of their palaces.
They were invaders. No excuses can be made to cover
that. The war was questionable, and it is probable Scott
felt its essential injustices ; but he was a soldier, and had
the pride of conquest which the soldier must have as an
incentive. He moved to the storied " halls of the Monte-
zumas," and took command of the city. His rule was
wise and just. No one remembers anything against him.
He secured property against pillage, and allowed few
reprisals, even upon those who made a fortress of their
homes. He abolished the alcabala, or labor tax, and
granted all reasonable requests on the part of peaceful
citizens.
It was soon after their entry that, in passing a church,
a squad of soldiers were assailed from the roof. They
rushed into a shop near by, and asked for chisels and axes
to hew down the door. The owner of the store, a sturdy
Englishman, Peter Green, said : " I am a resident here.
I can't give you the tools, but I can't help your taking
them." They got the tools, and captured the uncon-
quered citizens. Peter Green and his wife became the
friends of Quartermaster Grant, and during the following
months he was a constant visitor at their house. They
lived on San Francisco Street, and Grant was for a time
quartered in the San Francisco church and convent
opposite.
At the Greens' he met a fine, wholesome family, some
what like his own people in Ohio, and it was a keen
delight to take tea with them, and feel again the influence
of a family. The daughter Sarah remembers him well,
though she was but a child. " We thought the world of
104 LIFE OF GRANT
him," she said. " He was so good-natured, and full of
his jokes. He wore a long beard then, which seemed
out of place on such a boy. I suppose he wanted to
look old. He was a daily visitor at our house, and my
people talked of him a great deal. John C. Hill used to
come to see us, too — him that was educated by Santa
Ana."
Dr. John C. Hill remembers him well as a boyish fel
low, fond of jokes and frolic, but one who laughed little
himself. " He was of most excellent habits, a good
soldier, and a good man. He was an active, sturdy little
fellow, much liked by all his companions. I saw him at
the Greens', where we used to gather to have tea on
Sunday. He was very sociable and jolly; that is all I
remember about him. By sociable I don't mean talka
tive ; he was always a man of few words ; but he liked to
be where company was and where talk was going on."
It was impossible for Grant to be idle. After he was
quartered at Tacubaya he rented a bakery, and ran it for
the benefit of the regiment. " In two months I made
more money for the regimental fund than my pay
amounted to during the entire war. While stationed at
Monterey I had relieved the post in the very same way,"
he wrote at a later time.
In May, 1848, the evacuation of Mexico was ordered;
Mexico had conceded all the demands of the Northern
republic.
CHAPTER XVI
CLOSE OF THE WAR
RANT was eager to return, for he felt free now to
marry the faithful little woman in far-off Gravois.
He had distinguished himself by brave deeds and saga
cious plans well carried out. He had been twice pro
moted for gallantry, and was returning to his bride elect
a brevet captain. Of course, this seemed little enough.
Luck seemed all against him, for, as he said : " I had gone
into the battle of Palo Alto a second lieutenant, in May,
1 846, and entered the city of Mexico, sixteen months later,
with the same rank, after having been in all the battles
possible to one man, and in a regiment that lost more
officers during the war than it ever had present at any
one engagement. My regiment lost four commissioned
officers (all senior to me) by steamboat explosions. The
Mexicans were not so discriminating; they sometimes
picked off my juniors."
The grim smile in that last line is appreciated fully only
by the eagerly ambitious young officer in the regular army
waiting the inexorable procession of officers in promotion.
Nevertheless, considering the large number of officers
and the small number of men, he showed the metal of his
inherited nature. For a lad who had no love for guns,
or trainings, or Fourth of July anvils, to win mention and
two brevets for gallant conduct was genuine achievement.
He was not afraid of bullets, and no noise or hurly-burly
could confuse him.
General Worth made his " acknowledgments to Lieu
tenant Grant for distinguished services." Captain Horace
Brooks, in his report, says : " I succeeded in reaching the
105
106 LIFE OF GRANT
fort with a few men. Here Lieutenant U. S. Grant and
a few others of the Fourth Infantry found me. By a
joint movement, after an obstinate resistance, the strong
field-work was carried and the enemy's right completely
turned."
Major Francis Lee, commander of the Fourth Infantry
at Chapultepec, makes the following report : "At the first
barrier the enemy was a strong force, which rendered it
necessary to advance with caution. This was done, and
when the head of the battalion was within short musket-
range, Lieutenant Grant and Captain Brooks's Second
Artillery, with a few men of their respective regiments,
by a handsome movement to the left turned the right
flank of the enemy. . . . Lieutenant Grant behaved with
distinguished gallantry on the I3th and I4th."
Colonel Garland said : " I must not omit to call atten
tion to Lieutenant Grant, who acquitted himself most
nobly upon several occasions under my observation."
He speaks also of " a howitzer which, under the direction
of Lieutenant Grant, quartermaster of the Fourth In
fantry, and Lieutenant Lendrum of the Third Artillery,
annoyed the enemy considerably."
Of his bravery, his activity, and his discretion there can
be no dispute. He " went in anywhere " along the line.
He was ambitious then. Love influenced him, perhaps.
He had the natural desire to return to his bride bearing
all possible honors. It was with a peculiar chagrin that
he woke, one morning, to find a thousand dollars of regi
mental money stolen from a friend with whom he had
placed it for safe-keeping. Major J. H. Gore had a trunk
with a lock to it, and in this trunk he placed Lieutenant
Grant's regimental funds. During the night a hole was
cut in the tent and through the leather trunk, and the
money taken. A report covering these facts was made
out, and signed by Major Gore and one or two others,
which Lieutenant Grant sent in to the War Department,
and left matters in their hands. This gave rise to vari
ous exaggerated rumors of embezzlement, etc. Ulti
mately the facts were laid before Congress, and he was
completely cleared of all blame.
CLOSE OF THE WAR IO/
From a military point of view, these years of active
service were of incalculable value. They formed his
postgraduate course. They made theories of his instruc
tion at West Point realities. He saw two really great
commanders work out military manoeuvers of unques
tioned brilliancy. He saw Scott cut loose from his base
of supplies, and subsist on the country. He saw him
parole prisoners as the cheapest and best way to be rid of
them. He saw Taylor flank the enemy at Monterey, and
watched him under fire, cool, unhurried. He observed
Scott cooperating with gunboats, and directing artillery.
Being quartermaster, he had great freedom of action in
battle, and was able to range freely along the lines, to
inspect siege-guns, and to see all that went on.
From Taylor he learned the lesson of simplicity in army
regulation, from Scott rigorous discipline. As quarter
master he acquired ideas upon feeding and clothing an
army. He wrestled with difficulties. He met them hand
to hand. He perceived the difference between disciplined
troops moving under one man's direction, and many
troops operating on lines not converging to a common
purpose. All these things he saw, and they sank deep
into his impressionable mind. He was not conscious of
them at the time, but, as one of his fellow-officers said of
him, " All along he was massing facts in the storehouse
of his great memory." He forgot nothing which could
be of use to him. He had a comprehensive view of the
whole war, and was fitted to write a clear account of all
the manoeuvers.
He came in contact, also, with most of the young
officers of the army — Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston,
Albert Sidney Johnston, Thomas Holmes, Paul O. Her
bert, John C. Pemberton, James Longstreet, Simon B.
Buckner, and many others. He knew these officers very
well. He understood their mental habits and their per
sonal ideas of warfare, and such things he never forgot.
The wolves in the chaparral could instruct him as well as
the voice of his revered general.
That Taylor confirmed Grant in his dislike of uniform
is probable. His soldierly attitude toward the adminis-
108 LIFE OF GRANT
tration, his sturdy refusal to be made use of, his serene
waiting for orders, and, finally, his swift and unhesitating
execution of plans, profoundly instructed the young lieu
tenant. He came out of the army as well prepared to
command as any man of his age in the two armies.
This campaign formed, also, the boy's epic. For years
to come he was to talk of it and to dream of it. He had
gone, a beardless youth, from the quiet routine of West
Point and the pleasant life at Jefferson Barracks into
service in Texas, to become a part of an army. Then
came wonderful marches into the unknown, with strange
plants, flowers, fruits, on every side, and at last enormous
mountains lifting into the burning sky. He entered
Indian towns, primitive in habit and machinery as the
land of the Kafir. Monterey was stormed and carried.
Then on to wider and more marvelous campaigns, over
the ground made storied by Cortez and his conquerors.
Vera Cruz, dozing under the terrible sun, and Cerro
Gordo, the sugar-loaf, became a fact, and Jalapa the
beautiful a realized poem, set among the mountains, a
city of cool water, wholesome fruits, and kindly people.
Thence to Perote, seated in dust and ruins, like Egypt;
and thence to Puebla to confront the mightiest peaks of
our continent; and at last Mexico!
That he loved to dwell upon these marvelous scenes
all his friends know. It came at an age when the most
poetic side of his nature was uppermost. An accepted
lover, he was a part of the most daring, the most romantic,
and the most unjust war in which the United States ever
took part. That it broadened his thought and developed
his power is without doubt. He had grown in resource,
energy, and in military technique. He knew the actuali
ties of war. In his impressionable period he came in
contact with two admittedly great generals, and faced
both volunteer and regular troops. He had been in
every battle of the army of which he was a part.
From this activity, this romanceful, exciting warfare, he
was loath to drop back into the dull routine of barrack
life. He was but twenty-five years of age when the war
closed.
CHAPTER XVII
GRANT'S MARRIAGE
THE Fourth Infantry returned to the beautiful bar
racks of New Orleans for a short stay, and then
embarked for New York. But Grant, procuring another
leave of absence, took steamer up the Mississippi River
on the most important business of his life, which was to
marry Miss Julia Dent. " The small lieutenant with the
big epaulets " was returning a bronzed veteran of many
battles and with merited promotions. He was now brevet
captain, and felt in a position to take a wife.
An excessively modest marriage notice appeared in
the newspapers of St. Louis of August 22, 1848, and that
was the only public recognition of this mighty event.
Privately tales circulated describing the shy young soldier
who found his long sword in the way of his leg, and who
trembled more than at Monterey or Cerro Gordo. How
ever, he did not think at the time to be ever again called
to make a speech or get married.
Immediately after the marriage, which took place at
the bride's home, the young people visited the Grants at
Bethel, the Simpsons at Bantam, and old friends of the
young lieutenant at Georgetown. Their friends recall
the very fair-skinned, petite, and vivacious little lady who
accompanied " Ulyss," as they still continued to call the
rising soldier. Jesse Grant beamed with pride of his son.
" He would stop any time in the rain to talk about Ulysses."
Samuel Simpson of Bantam worried through a visit
from Lieutenant Grant and a young Mexican named
Gregory, who accompanied him. They spent a great
109
110 LIFE OF GRANT
deal of time throwing the lariat, and Ulysses became
quite expert with it. He tried it on the pigs, calves, and
cows ; nothing was exempt. This love of sport showed a
wholesome boyishness still in the heart of the soldier.
Gregory could not speak English, and Ulysses talked to
him in Spanish, to the wonder of the natives. At even
ing, on the street before the stores, the young soldier
submitted to questions concerning the war and Mexico,
and often kept the crowd late into the night with the
interest of his narrative. He talked with enthusiasm, and
with precision, too, of all the campaigns in which he had
been a part. The neighbors were done with sneering at
him now; he was recognized as a veteran and a man of
honorable deeds ; and in Bethel the young men who had
ridiculed him by caricaturing his new uniform now treated
him with distinguished consideration, for the uniform was
dignified by powder-stains and by the grime of months
of hard life in camp and field.
After a few care-free weeks spent among old friends,
the young soldier took his bride to join his regiment at
Detroit, where he arrived November 17, 1848, according
to the "Free Press" of that day; and on November 21
he was sent to Sacket's Harbor, in northern New York,
on the shores of Lake Ontario.
He was still quartermaster of his regiment, and was
entitled to remain at Detroit; but his superior, Colonel
Whistler, for some surly reasons, had Grant ordered to
the bleak and undesirable post of Sacket's Harbor.
Grant protested that his proper place as quartermaster
was at Detroit with the regimental headquarters, but
obeyed the order. He laid his grievances before Brevet
Colonel Francis Lee, commander of the regiment, and it
was forwarded to General Scott. Scott decided in Grant's
favor, but as navigation on the lakes had closed, Grant
postponed returning to Detroit till spring.
There are not many people in Sacket's Harbor who
remember Lieutenant Grant's first visit, but it happens
that one or two credible witnesses remain to give some
account of the young soldier.
He settled quietly to his work, and made friends at
House in which General Grant was married, St. Louis, Missouri.
From a recent photograph taken expressly for this work.
GRANT'S MARRIAGE in
once by his modest demeanor and gentle habit of com
mand. One of his musicians remembers him with great
clearness, for Grant did him many favors :
" Lieutenant Grant was a favorite among the enlisted
men. He was a mild-spoken man, and always asked his
men to do their duty ; he never ordered them in an offen
sive way. He was very sociable — always talked to a man
freely and without putting on the airs of a superior
officer. At that time he wore his hair rather long, but
had shaved off his beard, and his face was serious of ex
pression in repose. He used to ride and drive a great
deal, and was known as a strong, active little man, and
could take care of himself, if necessary. He and Mrs.
Grant used to go to little dancing-parties, but I don't
think he ever danced.
" He lived very modestly, — he could n't afford to do
anything else, on his pay, — but his wife made his humble
quarters cozy and homelike. His only dissipation was in
owning a fast horse. He still had a passion for horses,
and was willing to pay a high price to get a fine one."
Few knew him, for he lived very close to his duties and
his home. He attended church in exemplary fashion,
and was an earnest advocate of temperance at the time.
He helped organize a lodge of the Sons of Temperance
at the barracks, and gave hearty encouragement to the
order in the village by his presence. It is claimed that
he marched once in the procession, wearing the regalia of
the lodge.
One of his acquaintances heard him refuse to join in
a drinking-party once, and spoke to him about it after
ward. He explained his action by saying : " I heard John
B. Gough lecture a short time ago, and I have become
convinced that there is no safety from ruin by liquor
except by abstaining from it altogether."
It took courage in those days to wear the white apron
of the Sons of Temperance, but Lieutenant Grant was
not one to dodge in battle. The life at the barracks was
slow and uneventful, and in playing to pass away time
Lieutenant Grant became a good checker-player, and
worsted everybody at the barracks. There is a story in
112 LIFE OF GRANT
the Harbor wherein it is related that he rode over to
Watertown occasionally to meet a redoubtable expert. It
was ten miles over there, and generally he rode it in
forty-five minutes ; he could n't abide a slow horse. The
champion was a shoemaker, and after some trials the two
players settled upon a series of games and the wager. It
was further agreed that if the series ended in a draw the
supremacy should be determined by a foot-race. It
turned out an even contest, amid some considerable
interest. The rivals went out into the street and laid out
the course. Grant was a small young fellow, and lively
on foot, and led the sedentary shoemaker from the start.
He was so confident of victory that he did not take off
his linen duster. He won the race, and, mounting his
horse, rode home in triumph.
There was a strong military feeling about the forts
during those days, and old army forms were rigidly main
tained ; but Grant never insisted on his rank. He was
always simple and kindly in his manner, and performed
his duties without fuss or flurry, and was considered a good
officer. As soon as spring opened he returned to Detroit.
He was very glad to do this, for Sacket's Harbor at that
time was far separated from the outside world even in
summer; in fact, it was a cold, bleak, and inhospitable
port at the edge of a vast wind-swept lake of ice and
snow. Youth and love had made it a habitable spot, but
nevertheless the world counts for something even in the
honeymoon, and Detroit seemed a much more hospitable
place to them both.
The plain little frame cottage in which they made their
home in Detroit is still standing, and is about such as a
well-to-do carpenter might build for his own use. It
was, indeed, all that the pay of a lieutenant at that time
warranted. It stood on the outskirts of the town, and
had some vines clinging about it, and some fruit-trees
grew in the yard. The neighbors were ordinary citizens
of the working-man's condition. The officers who were
unmarried lived at the hotel in town, and walked to and
fro to their meals, passing near Grant's house.
He took up his quartermaster duties at once, steady
GRANT'S MARRIAGE 113
as clockwork; but it was not long before he had another
driving horse. A French Canadian of the town, named
David Cicotte, owned a small and speedy mare, which
Grant's keen eyes had observed and coveted, and which
he bought as soon as his means allowed. This mare,
under Grant's training, became so speedy that he was
soon " able to show the back of his buggy to almost any
thing in the town."
His swift driving caused him to be observed and re
membered by the citizens of Detroit far beyond any
other deed or characteristic. Everybody knew Lieu
tenant Grant (and his Cicotte mare) by sight. Otherwise
his life was very methodical.
" Lieutenant Grant, except for his fast driving, lived
inconspicuously." He was considered an amiable and
inoffensive little fellow by the merchants of the town.
One went so far, one day, as to say that it was very queer
business putting quartermaster's work into the hands of
such a man, and one of his fellow- officers said : " He may
be no good with papers, but he 's hell with a regiment."
" He was boyish, said little, and always kept in the
background except when drawing the lines over the back
of his horse ; then he led the procession. He loved horses ;
no doubt of that. He used to race Saturdays 'way out
on Fifth Avenue, which was then a foremost racing-
ground for the citizens. On bright midwinter days every
driving team in Detroit would be there. Every man who
had a horse took part, and Grant was always there with
his little pony which he bought of Dave Cicotte."
He was thoroughly social, but showed it in being where
people were, rather than by entertaining them. Mrs.
Grant, however, loved company, and was often a lively
figure at parties and dances. Grant, who never danced,
used to bring his wife and afterward stand around look
ing on. Sometimes he made a hand at a game of cards
with others who did not dance. An old friend said :
" I knew him as well as any one here at that time,
probably. I met him socially and officially and in busi
ness. He was a gentleman in his habits and instincts,
quiet and unobtrusive. He took his glass of liquor with
114 LIFE OF GRANT
the rest of us, but he was noticeable for his domestic
habits. He was considered one of the best officers in his
regiment."
He had a rather amusing set-to with a young merchant
of the town named Zack Chandler. The incident brought
his resolute character to the notice of the citizens. The
young officers, on their way to and from the barracks,
were obliged to walk past Chandler's lot, and they often
found the snow and ice lying thick across the path. They
grumbled a good deal ; but Chandler was a big, burly
fellow, rather proud of his physical hardihood, and no one
was eager to make complaint against him. At last Grant,
who knew no fear, volunteered to " bell the cat," and with
no sign of fear he entered complaint against Chandler.
Chandler brought the matter to trial with voluble
ferocity, and accused the officers of being drunk and dis
orderly. Grant held to his cause, however, and Chand
ler was fined for obstructing the walk. Everybody
expected Chandler to whip Grant, but he did not. Some
thing in the quiet little man's glance informed him he
could not safely do so. No one has ever said that Grant
knew fear, or that he ever acknowledged himself whipped.
He was not a fighting man, but he had a way of keeping
a rowdy at arm's length.
His only time of trepidation seemed to be when called
upon to make a speech. At a dinner given to Colonel
Grayson, Grant was called on for a toast. In noticeable
tremor, the young officer rose and said, " I can face the
music, but I can't make a speech," and gave this senti
ment: "The Grayson Guards! should their services be
required, may they be rendered in proportion to the con
fidence placed in them and their worthy commander."
This was neat, admirable in reserve, and covered the
ground. As for his ability to " face the music," every
man of the Fourth knew he spoke the truth. No young
officer had a higher record as a brave man. He never
went further than that phrase in praise of himself. In
June, 1851, he left his comfortable quarters at Detroit,
and returned to Sacket's Harbor.
West front of fortification and barracks, Fort Wayne, Detroit.
'rom a photograph loaned by Captain E. D. Smith of the Fifteenth Infantry. The building shown was erected in 1848, t
r Grant first went to Detroit, and is the only one now standing at Fort Wayne that could have been in existence when Gra
yea
was stationed there
Officers' barracks, Sacket's Harbor, New York.
From a photograph owned by Colonel Walter 13. Camp.
GRANT'S MARRIAGE 115
It was a dull life there on the edge of Ontario, after
the little round of possible gaieties had been traversed a
dozen times. The change of barracks did not greatly
change his duties. Grant transacted his duties promptly
and well each day, and formed a silent member of all
meetings of the officers. In the mess-room he was con
sidered a good fellow, but a little slow as a companion.
He talked a good deal of the Mexican War, however, and
at such times grew very earnest and graphic, and im
pressed others with his power to present in an orderly
way his conception of the campaigns. His companions
often said he gave the clearest account of the Mexican
War they had ever heard.
He went out socially very little, though the officers
often dropped in to enjoy the cozy home Mrs. Grant had
conjured out of very plain barrack rooms. As a con
siderate husband, a good citizen, and a faithful officer he
spent some six months in the post. He was comfortable
and happy, but he had scarcely resigned himself to the
life of a soldier. He was getting nowhere ; he was merely
dozing in a snug corner. Beneath his quiet manner his
companions, the more discerning of them, saw in him a
" restless, energetic man."
But a change came into his quiet life. An order ar
rived transferring him to the Pacific coast, which v as
almost as far away as Africa is to-day. He faced here
the question of a soldier's life in a new fashion. He had
developed no special love for the army, though he had
ceased actively to plan getting out of it. This order
brought up again the impulse to resign and go into some
thing else. He had those moments of profound thought
which marked him at West Point, and in his face the care
of a man and a father had begun to write its lines. He
seriously meditated resigning at that time.
It was out of the question to think of taking his wife
with him on the long and dangerous trip across the
Isthmus. His oldest child, named Frederick Dent Grant,
was nearly two years of age. And so with great reluc
tance and in deep depression he left Sacket's Harbor for
Il6 LIFE OF GRANT
the coast, while Mrs. Grant returned to the home of Jesse
Grant in Bethel, where her second child was born. Under
the circumstances, it was impossible for Mrs. Grant to go
with her husband, and the bitter sorrow of parting from
his little son and his wife (soon to be a mother a second
time) brought the stern realities of a soldier's life very
close to Lieutenant Grant.
CHAPTER XVIII
LIEUTENANT GRANT IS ORDERED TO THE COAST
THE Fourth Infantry assembled at Governor's Island,
New York Bay, and thence took ship for the Isth
mus. The steamer Ohio was in command of Captain
Schenck, who was able afterward to recall the young
man.
" Major Bonnevelle was in command, and Grant was
quartermaster. For the first week I did not have much
to say to him. He was then a quiet, undemonstrative
man, and took matters just as they came without com
ment, though when called upon he never seemed to be at
a loss for an opinion and a good reason to back it. Bonne
velle was hasty and uncertain in his action, and gave
cause for disagreements, and it was a customary practice
to refer these disputes to Grant as arbitrator. His rulings
were distinguished by particular good sense.
"He was accustomed to walk the deck late at night,
and so we came at last to walk up and down the deck,
discussing such matters as came up from time to time.
He seemed to me to be a man of an uncommon order of
intelligence. He had a good education, and what his
mind took hold of it grasped strongly and thoroughly
digested."
Nothing which the young soldier had ever done sur
passed the energy, resource, coolness, and daring of cross
ing the Isthmus. It was equal to a campaign against a
foreign foe. It was a fight against fever, cholera, poison
ous plants, bad water, inefficient labor, and insubordinate
soldiery. As quartermaster he was forced to take the
117
Il8 LIFE OF GRANT
brunt of all shortcomings in transportation and all com
plaints concerning supplies.
It was a perilous time of year to attempt such a pas
sage, but that made little difference to the authorities in
Washington. Quartermaster Grant, luckily, was experi
enced in the care of men in tropical climates, and was
prepared for the worst. The Ohio delivered its freight at
Aspinwall, and let loose a swarm of gold-seekers as well,
as soldiers. The heat was appalling, and Grant was sleep-
lessly active in getting his charges out of the low-lying
port at once. All was confusion. The town of Aspinwall
had sprung up since the beginning of the gold excitement,
and had scarcely acquired law, and certainly was without
order.
The railway was completed only to the Chagres River,
eighteen miles away. The steamship company had con
tracted with the government to take the troops across the
Isthmus, but when they arrived at Chagres, Quartermaster
Grant found that no mules had been provided by the agent
of the company, and that in the rush it was really impos
sible to secure any. The agent was supine and lifeless
in the business, and Grant was forced to take charge of
the whole movement.
The regiment marched directly toward Panama, while
the band and the officers' wives, accompanied by Quarter
master Grant, went down the river toward Cruces. Upon
arriving at Cruces, he found the agent of the transporta
tion company unable to comply with his engagement.
This threw upon the young quartermaster the entire
responsibility of transporting his passengers and the regi
mental baggage, and tested his energy and his practical
experience as severely as any campaign in which he had
been engaged. He grappled with the problem with
undaunted courage.
At last he got his heterogeneous cavalcade in motion.
The wives of the officers he started at once toward the
western port, for the cholera was in Cruces. The others
he put under way a few days later. He himself stayed
behind to attend to the stores. He took care of the
health of the soldiers and of everybody in the company.
LIEUTENANT GRANT IS ORDERED TO THE COAST 1 19
His position was very hard, and at one time everything
seemed to depend upon his personal energy. One disaster
followed another. No sooner were the passengers brought
safely across the Isthmus than the cholera broke out on
shipboard. More than one hundred and fifty men died
of it, thirty-seven in one day, among them Major J. H.
Gore, with whom Grant had been most intimately asso
ciated in Mexico and in Detroit. The passengers were
panic-stricken, and the men, appalled at their new foe,
muttered alarm and wrath. In the midst of all the con
fusion and fear, which amounted to frenzy, Quartermaster
Grant remained cool, resolute, watchful, and sympathetic.
Nothing could flurry him or anger him or make him
afraid.
He had heavy responsibility on his hands. It was his
duty to provide hospital facilities and medicinal supplies,
and also to see to the disposal of the dead ; but he did
these things with as much system as though he had been
quartered at Detroit. There were from fifty to sixty
dangerously sick people on board all the time, with
twelve or fifteen of them dying daily, and with only a
ship's deck to take care of them on. " Grant seemed to
be a man of iron, so far as endurance went, seldom sleep
ing, and then only two or three hours at a time. Never
theless, his work was always done, and his supplies always
ample and at hand. He seemed to take a personal interest
in each sick man ; and when one considers the situation,
the hospital accommodations he provided were wonderful.
He was like a ministering angel to us all," said one who
passed through this terrifying trip.
The captain of the Golden Gate was also a man of de
cision and character, and an officer of wide experience in
the treatment of Asiatic cholera. He refused to sail until
all the passengers had been landed and all clothing fumi
gated and the ship thoroughly overhauled. These vigor
ous measures put an end to the plague, and the Golden
Gate passed on her way to San Francisco without further
mishap.
Upon arrival in San Francisco Bay, a camp was estab
lished at Benicia, which was but a short distance out of
.
I2O LIFE OF GRANT
San Francisco, and the regiment stayed several weeks in
this camp, waiting for a steamer to take it to Oregon. In
the early autumn it reached permanent quarters at Qo?.
lumbia Barracks, a post on the Columbia River not far
from the site of the present city of Portland, which was at
that time a small settlement of woodsmen. The buildings
of the post had been erected by Grant's friend and room
mate, Rufus Ingalls. It consisted of a number of rudely
and hastily constructed log houses. The houses, furni
ture, and fixtureware were all made out of green wood
with the ax. The surrounding country was a wilderness,
peopled, where it was settled at all, by Indians or whites
of the rough-and-ready frontier type. The few manu
factured articles in use were brought around the Horn
in sailing-vessels, or across the plains and mountains in
wagons.
The records of the post show that Grant, in spite of all
discouragements, performed his duties as quartermaster
faithfully and well. He built houses, repaired wagons,
and fitted out expeditions. Under this last head it is
recorded that in July, 1853, he supplied Captain George
B. McClellan with transportation and all things needful
for the first survey of the Northern Pacific Railway.
He was kind and quiet, but could not be imposed upon.
He was quick and resolute of action, when necessary.
Once when a drunken purser of a steamboat was dis
turbing the audience at the little theater at the post, Grant
made his way to the ruffian, seized him by the collar, and
put him out with deftness and despatch. No man pre
sumed to dispute his orders, small as he seemed. He
was a good soldier, and loved order and good discipline.
CHAPTER XIX
GRANT IS PROMOTED, BUT RESIGNS
EEUTENANT GRANT served just one year at Fort
Vancouver. During this time he lived and messed
with his West Point room-mate, Rufus Ingalls, who was
stationed there as depot quartermaster. Horseback-riding
was the chief diversion of both Grant and Ingalls. They
kept a pair of horses on the south bank of the Columbia,
opposite the post, and when life grew insupportable at
the fort " they sometimes crossed the river, and rode on
horseback to Oregon City, twenty miles up the Wil
lamette. Portland was then too unimportant to attract
their attention."
It was a dull and dreary year to the young soldier.
The routine of an army post is the same everywhere, no
matter how its surroundings may vary. Oregon at that
time was a wilderness, and a gloomy wilderness in winter
time. For six months of the year it is a land of rain, of
moss, of dripping trees. The mists rise from the warm
sea, float inward, break against the Cascade Range of moun
tains, and fall in unending torrents over the steaming earth.
There are weeks when the sun is scarcely felt, when the
glorious mountains are hidden, and the world is of the
color of gray moss and falling rain.
Grant did his duties and carried himself with his usual
quiet dignity, but he was unusually silent and grave. He
had not the careless nature which makes light of such a
situation, although he was never a man to complain. He
had few intimate friends, and no enemies.
How deeply he felt this separation from his wife and
122 LIFE OF GRANT
his two little sons will never be known, but the memory
of an old artillery sergeant holds one revealing incident.
He had procured for the sergeant a position as agent
of the United States Ordnance Department, and on the
morning after the mail which brought the commission,
Grant " happened by " the sergeant's little cottage to
witness and enjoy his delight. When about to leave, he
said: " Oh, I, too, had a letter last night " ; thereupon he
drew from his pocket a letter, and opened it out. He
did not read it to the sergeant, but showed him the last
page, whereon his wife had laid his baby's hand and traced
the outlines with a pencil to show its size. He folded the
letter quickly, and left without speaking a word ; but his
form shook, and his eyes were wet.
He received few letters. There was a period of several
months, after leaving New York, during which he was cut
off from all news of his wife, and this at a time when his
anxiety was peculiarly intense ; and yet he uttered no
complaint, and was always mindful of others. He secured
an appointment for Sergeant Eckerson, and helped Drum-
Major Elderkin and his wife to make a home in the post.
Beneath his impassive exterior he was known to be ten
derly sympathetic to all need and suffering in others.
Those who saw him daily while he was stationed at Van
couver state that he carried himself with dignity, and was
highly respected by the garrison.
" He used to ride up to Drum-Major Elderkin's house
almost every morning, and say, ' Good morning,' and
gallop off into the woods. He took great interest in the
little family of the drum-major, and helped them in any
way possible. His habits were very regular. He was
one of the kindest and best men I ever knew. He seemed
to be always sad ; that is, he never seemed jovial and
hearty, like most of the officers. I thought him a very
active man, and a thorough soldier; that is the impression
he made on me. I loved him, for he was always kind to
me, and always just."
He felt the separation from his family the more for
being naturally domestic of habit. His wife and children
occupied much of his thoughts when off duty. Coarse
The house in which Grant lived at Fort Vancouver in 1852 and 1853.
Redrawn from a photograph loaned by Colonel Thomas M. Anderson, present commandant of Fort Vancouver.
Fort Vancouver.
Redrawn from a painting by Dr. Covington, now owned by Captain James A. Buchanan of the Eleventh Infantry.
GRANT IS PROMOTED, BUT RESIGNS 123
stories, profanity, roistering — all those things, which some
of his brother officers found entertaining, were distasteful
to him.
The winter dragged slowly on, and he began to plan a
summer campaign. He felt the necessity of doing some
thing, not merely because he knew he would be the better
for it himself, but also because he hoped to make money
enough to enable him to send for his family. He looked
about for something which he could engage in without
interfering with his duties at the post. There was nothing
to do but go back to the employment of his boyhood ; he
determined to farm.
The opportunities were ample and the prospect alluring.
" Potatoes were worth eight or nine dollars a bushel ; and
Grant, taking Lieutenant Wallen into partnership, deter
mined to go into a potato speculation. Together they
rented a piece of ground from the Hudson Bay Com
pany, and bought a team from an emigrant, and set to
work to plow and plant the ground. They planted a
large patch, and raised a famous crop of fine potatoes;
but every one else seemed to have raised potatoes also,
and the crop could not be sold at any price. The per
plexed farmers had finally to pay some of their neighbors
to haul the potatoes away out of a magazine that was
borrowed from the commandant of the post!" The crop
was ultimately a nuisance.
Grant says, in addition, that the gray old Columbia
swept over the field in the autumn, and carried a large
part of the crop out to sea. However, it saved the trouble
of digging them.
He also went into a partnership with Rufus Ingalls to
cut and ship ice to San Francisco. This, it is related,
came to nothing. Adverse winds held the brig back till
some ships from Sitka unloaded their cargoes on the
market, and ice was of no great value. He next became
interested in buying cattle and hogs and shipping them to
San Francisco.
" We continued this business," said his partner, " until
both of us lost all the money we had. He was the per
fect soul of honor and truth, and believed every one as
124 LIFE OF GRANT
artless as himself. I never knew a stronger or better
man."
In August, 1853, he was promoted to a full captaincy,
and ordered to Fort Humboldt to fill a vacancy caused
by the death of Captain Bliss, famous as General Taylor's
adjutant in the Mexican War. " Early in October Cap
tain Grant started for Fort Humboldt, California, to take
command of his company. . . . The post was two hun
dred and forty miles north of San Francisco, and the
buildings stood on a plateau affording a splendid view of
Humboldt Bay. The only town in the vicinity was
Eureka, which contained but a sawmill and twenty
houses.
" Communication with San Francisco was solely by
water, and mails were very irregular. The officers looked
out anxiously every morning for a sail, and, when one
appeared, galloped down to Eureka for- their letters or a
stray newspaper.
" The line captain's duties were less onerous than the
quartermaster's had been, and the discipline was far more
rigid and irksome. No greater misfortune could have
happened to Captain Grant than this enforced idleness."
He had little work to occupy his time, he was far
separated — hopelessly separated — from his family, and
had an uncongenial commander in Colonel Buchanan.
He took little interest in the dancing, hunting, fishing,
and other diversions of the officers, and, above all, the
futility of the whole life weighed upon him.
" The result was a common one : he took to drink."
He had learned the use of liquor in the Mexican War,
along with smoking and chewing tobacco, but up to this
time there is little reliable evidence of excess in its use.
Even now, at Fort Humboldt, " he drank much less
than other officers whose reputation for temperance was
unsullied ; but with his peculiar organization a little did
the fatal work of a great deal." A single glass of liquor
visibly affected him. " He was guilty of no gross inde
corum or misdeed, but he fell so far under the influence
of his insidious love for it that he was told to place his
resignation in the hands of the commandant, to be for-
GRANT IS PROMOTED, BUT RESIGNS 125
warded to Washington at the first repetition of the
offense. It was a notice to ' reform or resign.' He
said, ' I will resign and reform.' He sent in his resigna
tion, to take effect July 31, 1854."*
According to the records of the adjutant- general's
office, Captain Grant accepted his commission and sent
in his resignation on the same day. This would seem to
* GRANT'S RESIGNATION.
The following papers are every line on file in the adjutant-general's office
at Washington, concerning the resignation of U. S. Grant from the army in
1854. These papers were copied in the immediate presence of General
Ruggles. the adjutant-general, in February, 1897.
Grant acknowledges his commission April u, 1854:
" COLONEL S. COOPER: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
my commission as captain in the 4th Infantry, and my acceptance of the
same. I am, Colonel,
" Very respectfully, your obt. servt.,
" U. S. GRANT,
" Capt. 4th Infantry."
On the same day he wrote the following letter :
" FT. HUMBOLDT, HUMBOLDT BARRACKS,
"April ii, 1854.
"COLONEL: I very respectfully tender my resignation of my commission
as an officer of the army and request that it may take effect from the 3 1st
July next. I am, Colonel,
" Very respectfully, your obt. servt.,
" U. S. GRANT,
" Capt. 4th Infantry.
"To ROBERT C. BUCHANAN." .
On the back of this is the following indorsement in Grant's own hand
writing :
"FT. HUMBOLDT, April u, 1854.
" Capt. U. S. GRANT,
" 4th Infantry.
" Respectfully forwarded with the recommendation that it be accepted.
" ROBERT C. BUCHANAN,
" Brevet Lt. Col.
"Capt. 4th Infantry, Commanding Headquarters Detachment.
" FT. HUMBOLDT, CAL., Apl. n, 1854.
" Received Headquarters May 20, 1854.
" HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC,
"SAN FRANCISCO, Apl. 22, 1854.
"Approved and respectfully forwarded.
" JOHN E. WOOL,
" Major-General.
126 LIFE OF GRANT
give color to the story that Colonel Buchanan forced his
resignation. Other than the mere coincidence in the date,
there is not one line on file in the War Department to
indicate why he resigned or what' his motives were. His
father wrote at once, upon the official announcement, to
inquire of Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War, if it
were true that his son had resigned, and asking why he
had resigned.* To this the department replied, inclosing
" HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
" NEW YORK, 2oth May, 1854.
" Respectfully forwarded by command of Major-General Scott.
"(Signed) IRWIN McDowELL.
"It is respectfully recommended that Captain Grant's resignation be
accepted to take effect as tendered July 31, 1854. The enclosed paper dated
May 29, shows the state of Capt. Grant's accounts with the Treasury.
" ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, May 30, 1854.
" S. COOPER, Adjutant-General."
And the final indorsement has a peculiar historical interest :
"Accepted as tendered.
"JEFFERSON DAVIS,
" Secretary of War.
"June 2, 1854."
The paper mentioned stated that Captain Grant's accounts were entirely
in order, and that he owed the government nothing, and there was no fault
to find with his management of affairs as quartermaster.
It will thus be seen that Captain Grant not only went out of the service
with his accounts in order, but that no hint of his reasons for leaving the
service appears in the adjutant-general's office. Nothing stands against
his good name in the office of the adjutant-general of the United States army.
* " BETHEL, CLAREMONT COUNTY, June i, 1854.
" HON. JEFFERSON DAVIS, SECRETARY OF WAR.
"DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 7th instant enclosing acceptance of the
resignation of my son Captain U. S. Grant, was received a few days ago
through Thomas A. Ellyson. That was the first intimation I had of his
intention to resign.
"If it is consistent with your powers and the good of the servis I will be
much gratified if you would reconsider and withdraw the acceptance of his
resignation and grant him a six months leave that he may come home and
see his family.
" I never wished him to leave the servis. I think after spending so much
time to qualify himself for the army and spending so many years in the servis
he will be poorly qualified for the pursuits of private life.
" He has been eleven years an officer, was in all the battles of Generals
Taylors and Scotts except Buena Vista, never absent from his posts during
the Mexican War and has never had a leave of six months, would it then be
asking too much for him to have such leave that he may come home and
make arrangements for taking his family with him to his post.
GRANT IS PROMOTED, BUT RESIGNS 127
Grant's acceptance, saying that the department was not
informed of Captain Grant's motives.
According to another account, furnished by Colonel
Thomas Anderson, the present commandant at Fort
Vancouver, Rufus Ingalls, Captain Grant's most intimate
friend, said : " Captain Grant, finding himself in dreary
surroundings, without his family, and with but little to
occupy his attention, fell into dissipated habits, and was
found, one day, too much under the influence of liquor to
properly perform his duties. For this offense Colonel
Buchanan demanded that he should resign, or stand trial.
Grant's friends at the time urged him to stand trial, and
were confident of his acquittal ; but, actuated by a noble
spirit, he said he would not for all the world have his wife
know that he had been tried on such a charge. He there
fore resigned his commission, and returned to civil life."
Steadily, silently, there had crept i-nto his brain a
craving for stimulants which had mastered him. It was
an appetite, and not a dissipation. According to reliable
testimony, he remained the same clean-spoken, consider
ate, and honorable gentleman through it all. His habit
of drink did not touch upon the inner sweetness and
purity of the man's nature, but it occasionally mastered
" I will remark that he has not seen his family for over two years and has
a son nearly two years' old he has never seen. I suppose in his great anxiety
to see his family he has been ordered to quit the servis.
" Please write me and let me know the results of this request and,
" Respectfully, your obt. servt.,
"J. R. GRANT."
On the back of this appears the following indorsements :
" Capt. Grant's tender of resignation assigns no reason for his wish to
leave the service and the motives which influenced him to take the step are
not known; he merely desired that the resignation should take effect July 31,
1854, and it was accepted accordingly by the Secretary of War, June 2, and
the notification sent out to the army same day.
" Respectfully submitted,
" W. G. FREEMAN,
"Acting Adjutant-General.
"June 27, 1854." ,
Below this appears, in the handwriting of Jefferson Davis, the final
indorsement :
" Answer with endorsement. " J. D."
128 LIFE OF GRANT
him, and suddenly he became aware that men considered
him a drunkard. As far back as his first stay in Sacket's
Harbor he had known his danger, and had fought against
his enemy.
The resignation came when he was ill prepared for it.
Unlucky speculations had left him with but little ready
money, and the little he had saved was in the hands of
elusive debtors. There were all the elements of tragedy
in the life of the young soldier at this time, when, upon
arrival in San Francisco, he found one debtor away and
the other unable or unwilling to pay. He was left abso
lutely without a dollar.
This final disappointment plunged him into dejection
which was almost despair. He had no money, and his
name was the subject of ill remark. Not one of those he
had helped seemed ready to help him, now that he needed
aid worse than ever before in his life. In such condition
he walked the streets of San Francisco.
Up to this moment his life had been without keen dis
appointment or sorrow. He had gone steadily and satis
factorily from cadet to lieutenant, and from lieutenant to
captain. But now came days which set ineffaceable lines
of gravity and care upon his face. His youth was past,
and he was facing unsettled middle life with no trade or
profession by which to earn a living for himself and those
dependent upon him. At this time his friends pitied him
and his acquaintances avoided him.
Robert Allen, chief quartermaster of the coast, heard
some men talking of him, and in that way learned of his
presence in San Francisco. He set forth to find him, for
he liked him, as did every one who really knew him.
" He found him, at last, in a cheap little miners' hotel
called the 'What Cheer House.' Grant was up in a little
garret room which contained only a small cot, a pine table,
and one chair.
" There he sat, a young man of thirty-two, in utter
misery. His head was bowed, and as his friend entered
he lifted a haggard and sorrowful face.
" ' Why, Grant, what are you doing here ? ' asked Allen
of the shattered, gloomy young man.
GRANT IS PROMOTED, BUT RESIGNS 129
" ' Nothing,' he replied. ' I 've resigned from the army.
I 'm out of money, and I have no means of getting home/
" ' Well/ said Allen, at once, 1 1 can arrange for your
transportation without trouble, and I guess we can raise
some money for you.'
" He took hold of the matter vigorously, and through
him Grant procured transportation to New York, and
money enough to pay for his daily needs."
He reached New York forlorn and practically penniless.
He had just money enough to carry him to Watertown,
where he hired a horse and rode to Sacket's Harbor. One
of his recreant debtors lived there, and from him Grant
expected to extract some money. He failed to obtain
even an interview, and returned to New York in worse
condition than ever. Some days later he called upon his
old classmate, Captain Simon B. Buckner, who was recruit
ing officer in New York City, and confided to him his
distress. He had written for money, but had not heard a
word, and his money was gone. Captain Buckner became
security for his hotel bill during his stay in New York.
He wrote again to the West for money, and at last re
ceived enough to enable him to reach his father's home.
It is claimed that before he left New York several of his
old comrades on Governor's Island made up a purse of
fifty dollars to help him clear himself of all bills.
There was little joy in the home-coming. If reputable
neighbors are to be believed, Jesse Grant received him
grimly. He was deeply humiliated by this untoward
return of his eldest son. It seemed to falsify all the
omens and prophecies of which he had boasted in years
gone by. At this moment he saw nothing further to hope
for in honor of his son Ulysses, and he turned away to
Simpson and Orvil. They were to uphold the honor and
credit of the Grant house. " West Point spoiled one of
my boys for business," he said, and Ulysses replied: "I
guess that 's about so."
The gentle mother, on the contrary, was glad to see
him out of the service. She seemed to understand the
dangers and temptations of a soldier's life in barracks, and
found deep relief in his return to civil life and to his family.
130 LIFE OF GRANT
After a short time spent with his parents in regaining
health and good cheer, the ex-captain took his way to St.
Louis to his wife and children. This was in the late
summer of 1854, and he was thirty-two years of age. In
this one thing was hope : he had found out his worst
enemy and his most marked weakness, and was prepared
to do battle, and resolved to conquer this enemy within
the gates, if it took a lifetime.
CHAPTER XX
CAPTAIN GRANT TURNS FARMER
found St. Louis and Georgetown much the
same as when he had last visited Missouri. The city
was a little larger, the clearings on the Gravois a little more
numerous, and the fields a little wider; that was all.
Colonel Dent still owned White Haven, and was living
there at the time his son-in-law returned.
That autumn and winter Captain Grant (as the neigh
bors at once called him) lived at the Dent homestead, and
took a hand in anything which needed to be done about
the place. The welcome extended to him by Colonel
Dent could not be expected to be warmer than that of
his own father, but he at least gave Ulysses a place under
his roof. Probably it was some time during this winter
that Dent set aside some sixty or eighty acres of land for
Mrs. Grant, and told Captain Grant to make such home
upon it as he could. No deed is on record ; it was merely
a verbal transfer.
The task to which Captain Grant then set himself was
not an easy one : it was to start from the stump at thirty-
two years of age. Abraham Lincoln rose out of humbler
conditions, but he had no trial more difficult than Grant's
return to severe manual labor after having been fifteen
years accustomed to the routine and security of army
life. He began at the bottom, as a laborer, without
money, tools, or horses. He was among strangers, and
estranged from his father and brothers, who regarded him,
at the best, as criminally improvident.
Jesse Grant, apparently, left Ulysses for a time to his
132 LIFE OF GRANT
own resources. He had the reputation among his neigh
bors of being a hard man and a close man, though a just
one. Again and again he had helped his son until his
patience had at last given out, and Ulysses was forced to
look elsewhere for aid in his hard task of hewing a home
out of the forest.
However, these favorable coincidences are to be no
ticed : He was returning to his boyhood occupation in a
land almost identical in character with that of Brown
County, Ohio. Its climate, soil, and products were quite
the same, and his experience as a farm-boy in George
town served him in good stead. It was, withal, a beauti
ful country, this Missouri upland, with ridges of splendid
oaks and elms rolling like waves against the sky, inter
spersed with sunny slopes of fields, and lined with streams
of fine clear water.
The people were, however, more markedly Southern
in character than those of his native county, and many
were slaveholders. Their houses were modifications of
the woodsman's cabin, like those in the Ohio Valley, with
the wide galleries of the South added. Some of them
are standing to-day, picturesque and hospitable in ap
pearance, consistent and dignified as types of farm archi
tecture. They were, however, farm-houses, not mansions.
Around most of them stood little shanties of hewn logs,
in which the slaves lived in picturesque squalor. The
abolition movement was in fervid heat at this time, and
had affected some of the most advanced thinkers to the
point of liberating their bondsmen ; but Colonel Dent and
most of his immediate neighbors remained slaveholders to
the last.
Grant made a full hand about the farm during that
first year. He bound wheat, in the good old fashion,
behind stalwart, shining negro cradlers. He helped with
the plowing and in gathering the corn. The farmers' sons
of the neighborhood quite generally worked w'th the
negroes in the field, and they respected Captain Grant
for his manly resolution. The ex-soldier earned his bread
in the sweat of his brow during those long, sultry weeks,
but uttered no word of complaint. He began to reach
Mrs. U. S. Grant and her two eldest children,
Frederick D. and Ulysses S., Jr., about 1854.
From a daguerreotype taken at St. Louis, now owned by Mr. U. S. Grant, Jr.
and reproduced here with his permission.
CAPTAIN GRANT TURNS FARMER 133
out and lay hold of means to begin farming on his own
account.
In the early fall of 1855 he set forth to build a cabin
for his family upon the land which the colonel had set
aside for his use, and to that purpose he began to fell
trees and to hew logs. Day after day he toiled among
the oaks. Hour by hour the ringing stroke of his ax
uttered his resolution. He was a powerful man with the
ax, and the deft swing and sharp impact of the shining
blade left a clean, smooth cut. Around him the squirrels
watched the ripening nuts and scampered through the fall
ing leaves ; and when his wife sat near to watch him, and
the children played with the white and amber chips, the
scene was far-reaching in its significance. Over and over
again had this drama been enacted in the long march of
his ancestors from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi
River, with their toil softened and made light in this wise
by the brooding tenderness of women and the laughter of
children. Nothing that he had done in all his campaigns,
up to that time, touched such heights of resolution and
manly independence as this single-handed assault on the
ranked oaks and elms.
At last the logs were ready to be put into place, and
invitations were sent out for the "raising." The calls
were readily answered, for Captain Grant had made a
favorable impression upon the neighbors by his hard work
and his unassuming manners. The Sappingtons, the
Longs, and the Wrights sent in hands, both white and
black. Fenton Long took a corner, Captain Grant an
other, and at a third was stationed a powerful negro from
White Haven ; for the notching and fitting at the corners
required men who were quick on their feet and strong and
true with the ax. Two half-days put the logs in place,
and then Grant was able to go on with the inside work.
He laid the floor, put in the window-panes, and helped
to shingle the roof. Everything within his power he did
with his own hands, to save expense.
At last it was finished, and having in mind the rather
grandiose title of Colonel Dent's house, and foreseeing
toil and close economy, Grant, with quizzical humor,
134 LIFE OF GRANT
called his new home " Hardscrabble." It was a large
cabin of four rooms, rather more ambitious than the cabin
homes of many young married people of the neighbor
hood. The furniture was scanty and plain, but fireplaces
were wide and wood plenty, and a sort of rude comfort
was, after all, possible within its walls.
Charles Ford, the manager of the United States Ex
press in St. Louis, was an old-time acquaintance from
Sacket's Harbor, and through his aid Captain Grant
secured on easy terms a very fine span of express horses.
The acquirement of a team set him up in business. He
began at once hauling wood into St. Louis and props to
the coal-mines near by, and was able also to do some
teaming for his father-in-law. His horses not merely
helped him to earn money — they were a pleasure to him.
He treated them as pets, and they appreciated it; they
would do anything for him. He taught many a man how
to use a horse.
The exploits of this famous team provoked banter.
One Sunday morning, as Grant sat upon the veranda of
the elder Sappington's house, the old man said : " Cap
tain, I hear you hauled sixty bushels of wheat to the city
some days ago."
" I did," replied Grant, concisely.
" I can't believe it ; it don't seem reasonable."
" I tell you what I '11 do, Mr. Sappington," replied
Grant, quietly. " I will put on sixty bushels of wheat,
and you do the same. If I get to St. Louis without out
side help, and you don't, I am to have both loads. If
you succeed, and I don't, you 're to have both loads."
The older man smiled, but shook his head. " Well,"
he said, " I don't see how you do it."
Henry C. Wright at that time owned a grist-mill not
far from the Dent farm, and recalls many interesting
scenes of Grant's life in Gravois.
" Captain Grant used to come almost every week to
my mill to get corn and wheat ground. The first time
I ever saw him was at a sale. He was a small, thin man
then, with a close-cropped brown beard. He had no
overcoat, I remember, and he wore tall boots, quite
CAPTAIN GRANT TURNS FARMER 135
unlike any others in the neighborhood. He was living
with old man Dent at that time, and his cabin had not
been built. I think he was at the sale to buy some
hogs."
This second winter was spent in teaming, and in the
spring he began to clear the land for a crop. There was
little money to be had by the wealthiest farmers, and
none at all by Captain Grant, except by way of prop-
hauling and wood-selling. As a matter of fact, he hauled
more props than wood. His neighbors all spent a good
deal of time clearing land, and burned a great deal of it.
But Grant burned no timber; he made everything count.
He worked very hard, the next spring, planting wheat,
corn, and garden-stuff. His methods were orderly and
his tools and stock well cared for. He had no bad habits
except a liking for whisky. Drink was said to be his
weakness, but his neighbors saw little of it at the time.
He was always a gentleman, and a kind, indulgent father.
He loved horses and cattle, and every animal about his
farm was a pet. He had not an enemy that any one ever
knew of, and he never had any trouble with his neigh
bors.
Captain Grant soon won the respect of the better class
of his neighbors. All who met him socially liked him.
They perceived him to be a gentleman an$ a man of edu
cation, as well as a veteran of the Mexican War, and few
presumed to be familiar with him. He had a quiet way
of keeping people at arm's length. Once or twice, by
prompt and vigorous action, he showed himself capable
of protecting himself physically. " A fellow came to a
dance, one night, in his shirt sleeves, and set about being
noisy and vulgar. Grant asked him what he meant by
it. He started to make back talk. Grant told him to be
quiet, and when he refused, Grant kicked him out of the
door and clear out to the gate. He was a little giant
physically, and a man of no words — all action.
" Another time he was going to Big River, in company
with a man by the name of Bowman, with a load of props
and one of hoop-poles. They met a string of Big River
teams, whose drivers crowded Bowman and Grant into
136 LIFE OF GRANT
the ditch. Grant grabbed a hoop-pole, and said to
Bowman : ' Come on ! ' He was captain of that fight,
and the Big River fellows did n't repeat the trick."
Grant was the last man in the world to take offense,
but there were limits to his good nature. He took part
in all the neighborhood social affairs — at least, to the
point of accompanying Mrs. Grant and looking on. He
himself did not dance, but he enjoyed a game of cards,
and was an excellent player. Occasionally he took Mrs.
Grant to a quilting. As they had no light carriage, they
went on horseback, each with a child behind. He often
made calls on the neighbors, and was sometimes present
at the shooting-matches in the early fall, when the young
men met to shoot for the quarters of a bullock. " He
was a fairly good shot at a mark, and sometimes carried
off a quarter of beef."
At that time whisky-drinking was well-nigh universal,
and Captain Grant was exposed to constant temptation.
His wife and children helped him in his fight against his
appetite. His safety lay in absolutely abstaining from its
use, and for the most part he kept clear of blame. His
time of greatest trial came when he met old army friends
in St. Louis. Whatever share he took in the drinking
habits of the time, he retained the respect of the best
people of the neighborhood. No reputable man in all
the country round will say he ever heard an oath or an
unclean suggestion from Captain Grant's lips.
His neighbors considered him a strange man. "To
some of them he seemed unpractical, a dreamer, with no
turn at all for business, but one of the kindest men in the
world. Everybody could impose on his generosity."
His neighbors never became intimate with him, for all
he was so companionable and unassuming and lived the
life of a farmer as absolutely as any of them. He cut
props, hauled wood, plowed, sowed, reaped, raised hogs,
grubbed out stumps, and built fences. It was a hard life,
but had, after all, its peculiar pleasures. It had its sunny
days as well as its cold, gray, hopeless ones.
His affairs improved little each year. Mrs. Grant was
obliged to think twice before buying, but neither she nor
CAPTAIN GRANT TURNS FARMER 137
the children ever went hungry or cold. Living was cheap,
wood as abundant as air, corn was easy to raise, and bacon
not impossible to honestly acquire ; therefore the children
throve apace.
At its best life in these days was a hard struggle, and
the soldierly figure began to stoop at the shoulders, and
the hands grew hard and heavy. " He was always busy.
He did his best, and most of his neighbors felt sorry for
him. Others patronized him because of his lack of suc
cess, and would not have swapped places with him. In
general the best people of the town considered him one
of themselves."
In 1857 Mrs. Dent died, and Colonel Dent returned to
St. Louis to live. Captain Grant took charge of White
Haven, and assumed control of the slaves, tools, and
teams, such as they were. He was a poor slave-driver,
however; the negroes did pretty much as they pleased.
He seldom talked politics, but his neighbors all considered
him a Northern man in feeling and education. They
suspected an opposition to slavery. Whatever his real
wish in the matter, he acquiesced to the extent of making
use of the negroes left in his charge.
His teaming to St. Louis and to the barracks, where he
sold fire-wood, still continued, and " he unloaded many a
cord of wood in the back yards of St. Louis aristocrats of
that time." Fellow-officers, meeting him on the street
during this period, pitied him as " a man with an all-
pervading air of hard luck and vain regrets," dressed in
farmer fashion, with his trousers tucked into his old mili
tary boots. " He talked very little about himself, even
to those old friends — merely answered questions; but
seemed to enjoy references to old times in the Mexican
War." One of his chief est pleasures was a meeting with
comrades like Longstreet and Ingalls.
By reason of his full beard and his gravity of demeanor,
he seemed a middle-aged man to the young men of Gra-
vois. He was never sour or sullen, but also he was never
gay. He wore the somber look of a man who endures
and waits.
General Beale was sitting outside of the Planters' Hotel,
138 LIFE OF GRANT
one day, and Grant came along with a teamster's whip in
his hand. Beale recognized him. " Why, how do you
do, captain? What are you doing here? "
" Oh, I am farming on a piece of land belonging to
Mrs. Grant, some ten miles out in the country."
While they were talking the bell rang, and Grant started
to go on; but Beale said : " Come in and have dinner with
me."
"Well, I don't know; I am not dressed for company,"
said Grant, hesitatingly.
" Oh, that does not matter; come in."
Grant never forgot this kindness. Any favor, no matter
how small, which arose from a man's frank and unselfish
generosity made a profound impression upon him, though
he gave little visible sign of it at the time.
After all is said in palliation of this period, it was a
sorrowful situation for Ulysses Grant. He was a Northern
man of natural refinement, and an educated soldier, mar
ried into a slave-owning family, and surrounded by slave-
owning neighbors upon whom he was, in a sense, depen
dent. Each year his position grew more difficult because
of the growing heat of discussion. He never talked
politics outside his most intimate circle of friends. What
he thought is but obscurely hinted at by his action.
He voted for Buchanan in 1858, and expressed to a
friend at the time a foreboding of trouble. He hoped to
see Buchanan elected, for the reason that he believed it
would put the struggle four years further off. H. C.
Wright, a near neighbor, was running for the legislature
on the Whig ticket that year, and was at the polling-
place. Grant approached him, and said : " Mr. Wright, I
have voted for you to-day ; not on the ground of politics,
for I am a Democrat, but because I think you are the best
man for the place."
In calling these " years of failure," it must be remem
bered that the whole nation was in unstable equilibrium.
The West had passed through a panic, and the impending
struggle between North and South made all business un
certain and fitful. Then, too, Grant began at the bottom,
as a farmer on a piece of timbered land. And yet, in
CAPTAIN GRANT TURNS FARMER 139
spite of all this, he steadily though slowly acquired stock
and tools; for when, in 1858, he determined to leave the
farm, he had some little property to sell at public sale.
It is not strictly true to say he was inapt in business.
At times he showed remarkable efficiency. His perform
ance of regimental quartermaster duties was without
criticism, and his successful bakery for the regiments at
Puebla, Monterey, and Tacubaya, and also his ready
resource developed in crossing the Isthmus, show him to
have been capable and orderly. It seems that when a
thing was worth while he did it well. But he saw nothing
ahead for himself or his children. He could not go on
thus to the end of his days. All the time he was grub
bing out stumps and hauling wood he was pondering. A
neighbor said : " He was like a man thinking on an ab
stract subject all the time." He was not really a part of
the life around him ; he remained a looker-on through it
all, meeting everybody in the same reserved, courteous
way. There are scores of people to say they knew him, —
people who saw him on his load of wheat or wood, men
who met him in his cabin or saw him working about his
stable, — but they remember little that is instructive,
beyond his reticence and his generosity. They saw the
rough clothing, the grave, impassive face, the common
every-day action of the man, and knew him to be of
Northern blood; that was all.
But in the midst of his own trouble and poverty he
never forgot others. He was improvidently generous.
He gave when he needed every cent in his pocket. He
was kind, quick to aid by physical labor, and hospitable
to the last loaf. There was not one word uttered against
him at that time, even in relation to his intemperance.
Whisky was known by a few to be his bane, but, except
at rare intervals, he did not indulge himself in its use.
" No one considered him a drinking man, and there were
no stones abroad then concerning his immoderate use of
whisky," said his neighbor Wright.
It was a time of inner struggle. He fought a silent
battle with the liquor habit, and won ; and to his faithful
wife the highest honor is due. The first two years of his
140 LIFE OF GRANT
life in Gravois have their dark spots, but gradually he put
behind him the habits of army life, and lived without
reproach.
In the autumn of 1858 he abandoned the idea of farm
ing. There may have been family reasons for his removal
to St. Louis, but the reason he gave at the time suffices.
His health had broken down. Working in the forest and
around the lowlands had fastened fever and ague upon
him, a common affliction in that day, when decaying
vegetation abounded, and the lands were much swampier
than at present.
This also is certain : the eager, erect, hopeful, and
ambitious youth of the Mexican War had become a pre
maturely bent, care-worn, and somber man of thirty-five.
CHAPTER XXI
GRANT TRIES TO MAKE A LIVING IN ST. LOUIS
AS Grant's health began to fail he determined to get
JL\. into some business in St. Louis, and to that end
directed his energies. Mrs. Grant was very much in favor
of this plan, and urged her father to aid in finding some
thing for the discouraged farmer to do. Colonel Dent very
soon secured a partnership for his son-in-law with Mr.
Harry Boggs, a family connection. Mr. Boggs was con
ducting a small real-estate business, and was in need of
somebody to assist him, and Captain Grant went into the
firm practically as a clerk, for he had no money to invest.
For a few months he lived with Mr. and Mrs. Boggs,
who gave him an unfurnished back room in their house
and told him to fit it up as he pleased. It contained very
little during the time he lived there. He had a bed, and
a bowl and pitcher on a chair, and no stove at all. On
cold nights he sat beside the Boggs's family fire. On
Saturdays he went home. He lived in this way all
winter.
In the early spring he rented a little home on Lynch
Street, sold his stock and tools at the farm, and moved his
family into town. " He had no exalted opinion of himself
at any time, but in those days he seemed almost in despair.
He was not fitted for civilian life. His friends thought
him a man of ability, but in the wrong place. His mind
was not on business matters. His intentions were good,
but he had n't the faculty to solicit, nor to keep small
affairs in order."
To Mr. and Mrs. Boggs he seemed much depressed.
141
142 LIFE OF GRANT
He seldom smiled, was never heard to laugh aloud. His
habits were of the best while he was with them. Each
day he went to his desk ; at night he sat beside the fire
and smoked his pipe. His friends loved him because he
was so gentle and considerate, but they could not see
anything for him to do in the world. He had resigned
from the army, and had failed at farming, and it was
soon apparent that he was not fitted to buy and sell real
estate. What could his best friends think but that he was
a man without a vocation? He did not blame them for
thinking poorly of his powers ; he thought poorly of him
self. He saw no light ahead at this time, and yet his
desires were of the humblest character. He had no
ambition, apparently, other than to educate his children
and take care of his family.
He impressed his friends as an abstracted man. He
said very little unless some large topic arose. If any one
mentioned Napoleon's battles, or the Mexican War, or the
question of secession, he became alert, succinct, and fluent
of speech. He began to talk politics a great deal with
his intimate friends. His partner, Boggs, never doubted
Grant's position, and politics had something to do with
the final dissolution of partnership.
The firm of McClelland, Hilyer & Moody had the
parlors of an old French mansion on Pine Street between
Second and Third. Moody had the back room, and Hilyer
and McClelland the front, and it was in this office that the
firm of Boggs & Grant had desk-room. Mr. McClel
land expressed a liking for Captain Grant. " He does n't
seem to be just calculated for business, but an honester,
more generous man never lived. I don't believe he knows
what dishonesty is."
The new firm announced itself, by card, " prepared to
buy and sell real estate, collect loans and rents, and also
to buy and sell negotiable paper." This business de
mands a persuasive and tireless talker, and again Ulysses
Grant found himself at a disadvantage. He could not
" edge toward a thing." He had no power to banter or
beguile or persuade. He was of not much advantage,
and Mr. Boggs at length concluded he was better off
GRANT TRIES TO MAKE A LIVING IN ST. LOUIS 143
without him. The partnership was dissolved, and Grant
went out on the streets again, looking for work. He
haunted the places where any kindly face could be seen
or any work seemed remotely obtainable. The office of
county engineer was to be vacant, and he wrote a letter
in mid-August to the county court, which had the power
of appointing this office, asking for the place.*
He presented warm indorsements from Professor J. J.
Reynolds and D. M. Frost, and a petition signed by
nearly two score of very well-known citizens, which seems
to show the respect and esteem in which he was held, and
correspondingly discredits the stories of the malicious.
He was defeated, for two reasons: because the other
applicant was better known in his capacity as an engineer,
* " I beg leave to submit myself as an applicant for county engineer,
should the office be rendered vacant, and at the same time to submit the
names of a few citizens who have been kind enough to recommend me for
the office. I have made no effort to get a large number of names, nor the
names of persons with whom I am not personally acquainted.
" I inclose herewith also a statement from Professor Reynolds, who was
a classmate of mine at West Point, as to qualifications.
" Should your honorable body see proper to give me the appointment, I
pledge myself to give the office my entire attention and shall hope to give
general satisfaction.
" Very respectfully,
" Your Ob't. Svt.,
" U. S. GRANT."
Appended to this manly and modest application were several indorsements
which show his standing at the time.
" ST. Louis, August i, 1859.
" Captain U. S. Grant was a member of the class at the Military Academy
at West Point which graduated in 1843. He always maintained a high
standing, and graduated with great credit, especially in mathematics and
engineering. From my personal knowledge of his capacity and acquire
ments, as well as of his strict integrity and unremitting industry, I consider
him in an eminent degree qualified for the office of county engineer.
"J. J. REYNOLDS,
" Professor Mechanics and Engineering,
" Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri."
Below this, and on the same sheet, appears this note :
" I was for three years in the corps of cadets at West Point with Captain
Grant, and afterward served with him for some eight or nine years in the
army, and can fully indorse the foregoing statement of Professor Reynolds.
" D. M. FROST."
144 LIFE OF GRANT
and also because Grant was a Democrat, and three of
the five judges were Republican. The defeat was a bitter
disappointment to him, for the work promised to be con
genial. It would have taken him into the open air, and
had to do with mathematical problems, in which he was
proficient, and required no manner of soliciting, which
was practically impossible for him.
He next secured a clerkship in the custom-house; but
within a month the collector died, and Grant was thrown
out of employment again. He tried everything, but
knew not where to set his foot. It seemed as if nothing
existed in the world for him to do, or that the high powers
had decreed that he should not thrive in the South.
Meanwhile he had been a year or more in St. Louis
without earning anything considerable, and his small store
of savings was gone. Besides this, the man with whom
he had traded had given him a bad title in his house and
lot, and at last he was forced to leave it and take a still
humbler one, though the Lynch Street house seemed
humble enough. He was in arrears with his landlord,
and forced also to borrow money of his friends, and by
the following spring his affairs were in a deplorable
condition.
He thought at one time of going to Colorado with a
friend. At another time he had a chance to go into the
hardware business, and wrote his father requesting aid.
He waited nearly a month before getting any reply, and
when the letter finally came, its refusal to assist him
threw a damper on his plans. " His father-in-law contrib
uted little or nothing to the support of the family, and
in his conversation reflected with bitterness and ridicule
upon his unpromising son-in-law." "The hardship of
this period of his life can never be adequately told."
When his discouragements were greatest he went often
to see his friend Fishback, to talk over old times in Ohio,
and the many friends they held in common. Political
discussion was running high in St. Louis at that time,
and to be seen in the office of the " Democrat " argued
abolition principles, and made of the visitor a marked man.
This Captain Grant soon felt. Each month the fire of
GRANT TRIES TO MAKE A LIVING IN ST. LOUIS 145
sectional hate burned hotter; each month his position
grew more difficult; and at last he ceased to call at the
office of the " Democrat." His father-in-law was a slave
owner, and all of Mrs. Grant's family and friends were
hotly Southern in sentiment, and St. Louis society in those
days had little toleration for a " Yankee abolitionist " or
"black Republican Northerner." There was but one
thing for Captain Grant to do: that was, to keep his
thoughts to himself. These years constituted a training
in reticence and self-control. He had been reticent ; he
now became silent.
One day in the spring of 1860 he met his friend
Fishback on the street, and stopped him. His appearance
made a vivid and lasting impression on Fishback's mind.
He was shabbily dressed, his beard was unshorn, and his
whole manner denoted profound discouragement.
11 Fishback, I would like to sell or hire one of my wife's
house-servants. She is an excellent woman, and has been
in the family for many years; but she is a slave, and I
can't take her North."
" So you are going North? "
"Yes," he replied, with a sigh; " I can't make a suc
cess of it here, and I am going to Galena. My father has
offered me a place in the leather business with my brothers,
and I have accepted."
Fishback declined to hire the slave woman, and the two
men shook hands and parted, Fishback to resume his fight
against slavery, Grant to go North to earn a scanty living.
At this moment he touched the lowest depth of dejection
since his resignation from the army. He had made a
brave fight, but it had been against too great odds. As
the heat of discussion waxed it became more difficult to
maintain friendly relations with his neighbors.
His father-in-law was a grievance, with his invectives
against the " Yankees " ; and the time came when his
friends Mr. and Mrs. Boggs shared so deeply in the
growing sectionalism that they refused to take his hand.
It was a period of being despised of men and of lesser
men — a time of uncertainty and futility. He was cut off
from his own people, and little regarded by his brothers.
146 LIFE OF GRANT
He was a disappointment to them, for they knew very
little of him personally, and had not sufficient insight to
perceive that his education, and his adventurous and
dramatic life in Mexico, on the Isthmus, and in California,
had unfitted him for a stern, patient grapple with bread-
winning by office-work in a time of business uncertainty
and social unrest. It seemed as though the future prom
ised only hunger and cold for him and his.
He acknowledged his inability to make a living in St.
Louis, and went to his father an apparently defeated man.
Regard for the wishes of his wife had led him to remain
in the South longer than he otherwise would have done.
She was Southern ; naturally she did not care to go
North. Now he told her that he must leave St. Louis,
and, with a loyal resolution to share his fortunes to the
end, Mrs. Grant consented.
These were hard days, too, for Jesse Grant, who had
long talked of " my Ulysses " and the great deeds he was
to do. It seemed all a mistake now, in face of this grave,
shabbily dressed, middle-aged man. Perhaps it was the
quiet mother who softened the father's heart ; at any rate,
he " referred " Ulysses to his younger sons, Simpson and
Orvil, who were in charge of a leather store, a branch of
his business, in Galena, Illinois. Through them Ulysses
was to receive fifty dollars per month during the first year,
and if he was found to be a valuable man at the end of the
year he was to acquire an interest in the business.
Putting the best face on the matter does not make six
hundred dollars per annum for a man with a family of
six to feed a very long start toward a competency ; but
Captain Grant gratefully accepted the offer. There had
never been any vaingloriousness in the youth of the man,
and now he bowed his head to subordination without
complaint. His wife and children must be fed.
Those dark days were days of preparation, of growth.
In this six-year struggle great powers of thought, of
reserve, of concentration, were developed. His con
spicuous weakness in certain directions made him watch
ful and kept him sympathetic. His poverty made him
understand men. His life with slaves and slaveholders
GRANT TRIES TO MAKE A LIVING IN ST. LOUIS 147
gave him the key to their motives and to their conception
of the great slavery question. Thus far his life had been
led midway between the South and the North. Geo
graphically he was fitted to understand both sides of any
sectional controversy. The black man he knew by per
sonal contact. The slave-owner he had known as neigh
bor. The enormous power of the " peculiar institution "
had been a palpable presence all his life in Georgetown, in
Louisiana, and in Missouri. Southern Ohio was only a
little less pro-slavery than Gravois, Missouri.
He was now to come in contact wi'.h the conscience of
the. North. In the spring of 1860 he moved to Galena,
Illinois.
CHAPTER XXII
CAPTAIN GRANT GOES NORTH
are men yet living who stood, one April day
JL in 1860, watching the steamer Itasca while she
nosed her way up the tortuous current of the Galena
River. As she swung up to the wharf, attention was
attracted to a passenger on deck wearing a blue cape-
overcoat. As the boat struck the wharf this man rose
and gathered a number of chairs together, evidently part
of his household furniture.
" Who is that? " asked one man of a friend.
" That 's Captain Grant, Jesse Grant's eldest son. He
was in the Mexican War. He 's moving here," was the
reply.
No one thereafter gave particular attention to the
stranger, except some boys, who were attracted by his
soldier overcoat, the like of which they had never before
seen.
Captain Grant took a couple of chairs in each hand,
and walked ashore with them. His wife, a small, alert
woman, followed him with her little flock. There were
four children, three boys and a girl, all plainly but care
fully dressed, the hand of the mother showing in all
things. The carrying of the chairs ashore signified that
Ulysses Grant had become a resident of Galena.
The elder Grant had prospered. He had removed from
Bethel to Covington, Kentucky, where his tannery was
then located. He had also established in Galena, as a
branch of his business, a wholesale leather store, one of
the largest in the Northwest at that time. Originally the
148
CAPTAIN GRANT GOES NORTH 149
firm was " Grant & Collins " ; but Collins had withdrawn,
and the firm in 1860 was "Jesse R. Grant," with his son
Simpson as nominal manager, and with Orvil Grant (the
youngest brother) and M. T. Burke as clerks.
Captain Grant established his family in a small brick
house which stood high on the bluff to the north of the
main street. The rent was low, not merely because the
house stood on the edge of the town, but because to reach
it required a climb up several hundred wooden steps. The
price was one hundred dollars, one sixth of his yearly
wages.
Simpson went to live with Ulysses in the new house on
the hill, and this, no doubt, helped out expenses.
" Nominally," says Burke, " we all were to get six hun
dred dollars per year, but as a matter of fact we were
all working for a common fund, and we had what we
needed. We were not really upon salaries, in the ordi
nary sense, at all. Captain Grant came into the firm on
the same terms. There was no bossing by Simpson or
Orvil. I had as much to do about managing as anybody,
and no more. There was no feeling against Ulysses
coming in, and no looking down on him as a failure. We
all looked up to him as an older man and a soldier. He
knew much more than we in matters of the world, and
we recognized it."
Grant at once turned his hand to everything needful
to be done. He was nominally bill-clerk and collection
agent, but in fact he sold stock, bought hides, and made
out bills for goods, all in the same day. Sometimes, it is
true, he sold Russian bristles worth twelve dollars per
pound for ten cents an ounce ; but such mistakes are
rememberable, while the many times he sold awls or shoe-
pegs or leather, and did it right, are forgotten.
In those days exchange was high, and to save eight or
ten per cent, the firm bought dressed pork on the streets,
and shipped it to Cincinnati, to be turned into money
there. Captain Grant often climbed upon farmers' sleighs,
as they came into town, and bid upon the stiff and stark
yellow carcasses. Richard Barrett, another buyer at the
time, found him " a mighty shrewd buyer, too."
I5O LIFE OF GRANT
One day the clerk of the court sent word that a desk
needed covering, and Captain Grant took a breadth of
leather, and went to the court-house, where, with the aid of
young Will Rowley, he cut and tacked it on. Rowley was
a man of brains and pluck, which Captain Grant quickly
apprehended, and the two men became friends at once.
On all days when an overcoat was necessary this
stranger wore his blue coat; and Lewis Rowley, Clerk
Rowley's little son, was much impressed by it. " It made
him seem about eight feet tall to the boys, and they stood
in awe of him because he had been a soldier and because
he wore that wonderful coat. His son Fred was about
my age, and I was in and out of the house almost every
day. I used to see Captain Grant come home, climbing
up the hill, and then in the evenings he used to sit and
read to Mrs. Grant, or read by himself and smoke a clay
pipe. He was seldom away."
There is more to tell about this blue coat. Andrew
Haines met him, one Sunday morning, on one of the
stairways which crumple over the ridges and descend the
bluffs to Main Street. He stopped Haines, and said
abruptly :
" I suppose people think it strange that I should wear
this old army coat, but the fact is, I had this coat, it 's
made of good material, and so I thought I 'd better wear
it out." Undoubtedly he clung to it for its associations
as well as for economical reasons, though such sentiment
his training would not allow him to acknowledge.
At the bottom of the steep stairway of several hundred
steps stood a little Methodist church of brick, and there
Captain Grant, his wife, and their flock of small children
were to be seen almost as regularly as the deacons them
selves. He was not a church-member, but Mrs. Grant
was, and he readily accompanied her. In such plain,
simple fashion he lived during that year.
The Grants knew few people outside their immediate
neighbors, the Felts, the Burkes, the Haineses, and his
brother Orvil's family. The Soulardes, whom Mrs. Grant
knew in the South, came occasionally to see them; and
sometimes young Upson the jeweler, and Burke, and
CAPTAIN GRANT GOKS NORTH 151
Orvil Grant used to meet at the captain's for an evening
at euchre ; but " the captain was not much of a hand for
games." He read a great deal to Mrs. Grant, whose eyes
were not strong, and his evenings were almost invariably
spent at home.
During the eleven months of his stay in Galena he
lived so quietly, so inconspicuously, that no one outside
his customers and the little group on the hill met him.
He had few acquaintances and no intimates. Every day
he went to the store, came home to dinner at noon, and
returned to his family at night. He was absolutely
abstemious, diligent as a clock, and freely turned his hand
to whatever his brothers required of him, patient of their
impatience, in all ways their fellow-worker. His work
was not unpleasant, being in no way connected with a
tannery. In fact, there was no tannery in Galena, and
never had been. The nearest approach to it was a currier
shop, where green hides were stripped of hair in order to
be shipped to the tannery in the East. Grant was not a
tanner, never had been, and had nothing to do with this
work. It was a repulsive task, and required strong nerves
and powerful muscles. It was a work which he had
refused to take up when a boy of seventeen, and no one
asked it of him in Galena. That he may have weighed
hides is probable, but mainly his work was clerical, and
bill-books are extant showing many pages of his hand
writing.
The quiet routine of his life was broken but once, when
he made a business trip of a week or ten days up among
the small towns of Wisconsin and over into Iowa. This
trip was important in that it brought him still closer into
touch with the mind of the North. He had been sur
rounded by officers of Southern extraction for many years,
and it was a good thing for him to come in contact once
more with the plain people whom Lincoln knew so well
and trusted so completely. It was a time of discussion.
At night, in the hotels and stores, he is said to have
mingled with the crowds, listening quietly to all that was
worth hearing, and occasionally uttering an apt sentence
notable for its succinct good sense. He loved still to
252 LIFE OF GRANT
discuss Mexico and the Mexican War, and was considered
a most excellent talker.
It was close figuring during those days, with stout
youngsters wearing out clothes and eating at least three
times each day. Mrs. Grant heroically battled with con
ditions. She took care of her own house and the children,
and found time to put on her prettiest dress and meet
the captain at the edge of the bluff. All superfluities
were stripped away. They lived comfortably, but very
plainly. She wore her black alpaca dress, and he his
army overcoat, in order that the children might present
good though plain clothing at the Sunday-school classes.
Grant felt himself to be on the up grade. He had reached
a certain security : for the first time since leaving the army
he felt perfectly sure of a home. Simpson was in poor
health, however, and more and more of the responsibility
fell upon the captain. Both brothers had come to respect
him, even to admit his ability to buy and sell goods. In
December he wrote to a friend :
" In my new employment I have become pretty con
versant, and am much pleased with it. I hope to be a
partner pretty soon. . . . How do you feel on the
subject of secession in St. Louis? . . .
" It is hard to realize that a State or States should
commit so suicidal an act as to secede from the Union,
though, from all reports, I have no doubt but five of them
will do it. And then, with the present granny of an
Executive, some foolish policy will doubtless be pursued
which will give the seceding States the support and sym
pathy of the Southern States that don't go out."
It will be seen he had acquired ideas about political
events which he could express as clearly and forcibly as
he reported Mexican campaigns. Indeed, he is remem
bered in Galena as a specially good talker ; but he gener
ally spoke of what he had seen rather than of things he
had read, except in the case of newspaper- reading. He
did not discuss books or religion or art.
Some time in February his friend Rowley said to him :
" There 's a great deal of bluster about these South
erners, but I don't think there 's much fight in them."
CAPTAIN GRANT GOES NORTH 153
" Rowley, you are mistaken," Grant replied impres
sively. "There is a good deal of bluster; that 's the
result of their education ; but if they ever get at it, they
will make a strong fight. You are a good deal like them
in one respect: each side underestimates the other and
overestimates itself." *
He never argued or persuaded. He stated his view
clearly, forcibly, without exaggeration, then quit. There
was something inevitable about his manner of speech.
Men observed it, but seeing his seedy coat, his rough hat,
and knowing his subordinate position, they passed over
his remarkable qualities without comprehending their full
purport, yet feeling vaguely that a man who did not drink,
did not swear, who argued not concerning God nor science
nor politics, who used no slang or vulgarity, and who
spoke only when he had something to say, was (to speak
within the power of retreat) a "peculiar man." There
are those who remember to have said, " That Captain
Grant 's a peculiar chap." Others thought him a " pretty
smart man in some things, but no push in business." In
general he was overlooked by those who were the local
rulers.
* Richardson's "Life of Grant."
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FIRST WAR MEETINGS IN GALENA
FIVE days after the attack on Fort Sumter there was
gathered into the court-house of Galena an excited
throng of men and boys. Every bench was packed, every
chair taken, every foot of floor was occupied.
Some one rapped the meeting into order. It was citizen
Hempstead. He gave way to Robert Brand, the mayor,
who took the chair with obvious misgivings. He mentally
stammered, coughed, and repeated himself. He was a
vacillating, temporizing man of Southern birth before a
decided and radical audience. Amid painful silences he
said, with candor:*
" Fellow-citizens, I acknowledge the honor you confer
upon me, but it will be well to state briefly and frankly the
ground on which I stand in this present crisis. I am in
favor of any honorable compromise."
That slimy word, slipping from the mouth of the mayor,
produced a painful shock. The men before him were not
assembled to suggest compromise. The mayor went on
haltingly, perceiving that his words were out of harmony :
" I am in favor of sustaining the President " (the heavy
feet began to rumble on the floor) " so long as his efforts
are for the peace and harmony of the whole country."
The throng of battle-decided men had small sympathy
for such indecision ; they grew tumultuous in opposition.
" I am in favor of a convention of the people, that an
* This account is based on the accounts which appeared in the daily
papers of the city.
154
THE FIRST WAR MEETINGS IN GALENA 155
adjustment may be made sustaining alike the honor,
interest, and safety of both sections of our country."
The grumble of voices warned the mayor that he was
on the wrong track. He pulled himself together.
" I am in favor of sustaining our flag, our Constitution,
and our laws, right or wrong."
Nobody felt sure as to just what that meant, but it
grew clearer as he ended :
" Yet I am opposed to warring on any portion of our
beloved country, if a compromise can be effected."
Then the tumult broke forth. Men quivering with
excitement leaped to their feet, but gave way to the local
great man, Elihu B. Washburne, a thin-lipped, trans
planted New-Englander. His big, rugged, smooth-shaven
face was tense with emotion.
" I do not approve of the spirit of the remarks of our
chairman, and I never will submit to the idea that in this
crisis, when war is upon us, and when our flag is assailed
by traitors and by conspirators, the government should be
thus dealt with. We should have a chairman who more
fully represents the patriotic feeling of this meeting; I
therefore nominate George W. Campbell to preside over
this meeting."
This precipitated the struggle, and Washburne's motion
was put, and defeated in belligerent tumult.
Mr. Washburne then said :
" I withdraw the motion. I did not come here with
the intention or desire to introduce any political questions
whatsoever. I think, however, the chairman has gone
out of his way to drag in such matters. In this crisis any
man who would introduce party politics, be he Republi
can, Democrat, or American, such a man is a traitor."
Applause at this point instructed the chairman. " But to
test the sense of the meeting, I will offer some resolu
tions." He then read a series of resolutions declaring
the will of the citizens to " support the government of
the United States in the performance of all its consti
tutional duties in the great crisis," and recommending the
immediate formation of two military companies in the city
of Galena.
156 LIFE OF GRANT
Mr. Washburne, being loudly called for, again addressed
the meeting, hastily reviewing the situation of affairs in
the country, and calling upon all good citizens to rally to
the support of the government.
The resolutions seemed to express the sentiment of
the majority of the men present, but talk was demanded.
Captain Howard, a Mexican War veteran, made a short
speech. Then arose a young Democratic lawyer of the
town, a swarthy fellow with rough-hewn, passionate face,
with big eyes and wide lips — the face of an orator, the
form of a farm-laborer.
Many knew him, for he had been a laborer, a farmer,
and a charcoal-burner in the country near. He had edu
cated himself, had been admitted to the bar, and had
achieved the distinction of being candidate for elector
on the Democratic list. He could swear in polysyllabic
words and in iambic pentameter verse. In times of need
his flow of oaths was satisfying to the most avid ear.
Every head now leaned to listen, and for nearly an hour,
with voice like a lion, and with big work-widened hands
reaching and threatening, John Rawlins pleaded and
damned and argued, amid wild shouts of applause and
the rumble of boot-heels, which seemed at times to pre
dict the sullen, rhythmic sound of marching feet.
"The time of compromise is past," he said in closing,
amid the wildest cheering, " and we must appeal to the
God of battles."
As he sat down it seemed as if every man there was
ready to enlist, and yet the chairman made no use of this
splendid appeal, this quick response. The meeting fizzled
to a dreary anticlimax of second-rate talk.
As the crowd was pouring out young Rowley said to Grant :
" Well, Captain Grant, it was a fine meeting, after all."
"Yes; we 're about to do something now," was the
quiet answer.
This was the feeling of the patriots, and next day notice
was given that a meeting to raise a company of volunteers
would be held, and a few nights following the court-room
held another dense crowd. It was a meeting held for
action this time, and some citizen again assumed temporary
THE FIRST WAR MEETINGS IN GALENA 157
chairmanship. " This meeting will come to order. I
nominate Captain U. S. Grant for chairman."
The men were surprised, but in a mood to go ahead
under any leadership. The motion was carried. Grant
was sitting in grave silence on one of the hard benches
outside the railings. Though he had been in Galena for
a year, few had ever seen him with his hat off ; and many
of those who knew him had noticed him simply because
he wore the only soldier overcoat in the town. He hesi
tated. Shouts arose: "Grant! Captain Grant! "
He left the pine bench upon which he had been sitting,
and with much embarrassment went through the crowd
toward the desk. He was perceived to be a shortish man,
slightly stooping in the neck. He carried his head a little
on one side also, and had the look of a serious, capable,
sympathetic country doctor.
As he approached the platform where stood the judge's
chair, he turned aside and stood at the clerk's table below
the judge's desk.
"Go up, captain!" "Platform! Platform! " shouted
the crowd.
He smiled and shook his head, and stood for a moment
with both hands resting on the desk. He was not without
a certain impressiveness, seen thus. His head was large,
and his face thoughtful and resolute. He wore a full
beard, light-brown in color, trimmed rather closely, and
the firm line of his lips could be seen. In manner he was
almost timid as he turned and said, in substance :
" Fellow-citizens, this meeting is called to organize a
company of volunteers to serve the State of Illinois. Who
will you have for secretary?"
The bustle of electing a secretary seemed to give Cap
tain Grant time to recover himself a little, and he continued :
" Before calling upon you to become volunteers, I wish
to state just what will be required of you. First of all,
unquestioning obedience to your superior officers. The
army is not a picnicking party, nor is it an excursion. You
will have hard fare. You may be obliged to sleep on the
ground after long marches in the rain and snow. Many
of the orders of your superiors will seem to you unjust,
158 LIFE OF GRANT
and yet they must be borne. If an injustice is really done
you, however, there are courts martial, where your wrongs
can be investigated and offenders punished. If you put
your name down here, it should be in full understanding
of what the act means. In conclusion, let me say that so
far as I can I will aid the company, and I intend to reenlist
in the service myself."
The audience cheered at this, though a little dashed
by the quiet, serious, almost fateful talk of the chairman.
Someway he took the bombast out of the evening's
meeting, yet left it vital with resolute patriotism. In
answer to questions concerning military organization, he
replied in masterly brevity. He seemed to know every
detail. Every word fitted to its place like hewn stones in
an arch, not one unnecessary.
Washburne made a strong speech, and then the crowd
called again for Rawlins.
Rawlins refused to speak, and when some of his friends
went over and took him by the arm to lead him forward,
he said :
" No, boys ; I can't do it. My wife is dying of con
sumption. If she were the rosy-cheeked girl she was
when I married her, I would n't say, ' Go, boys ' ; I 'd
say, ' Come, boys' But I can't leave her."
The fateful eyes of the chairman were on his neighbor
Rawlins, and the sincerity of the young husband's utter
ance sank deep.
Nearly two score names were enrolled that night, and
Ulysses Grant never again returned to his clerkship in
the leather store of J. R. Grant ; he had other business
on hand which he knew more about.
The next day he wrote to his father-in-law, putting into
writing more of his actual fervency of feeling than he ever
allowed himself in speech. It showed how deeply he had
pondered on vital themes, and how clear-sighted his per
ceptions were.
MR. F. DENT.
DEAR SIR: I have but little time to write. . . . The times
are indeed startling; but now is the time, particularly in the
border Slave States, to show their love of country. . . . All
party distinction should be lost sight of, and every true patriot
THE FIRST WAR MEETINGS IN GALENA 159
be for maintaining the glorious old stars and stripes, the consti
tution and the Union. The North is responding to the presi
dent's call in such a manner that the confederates may truly
quake. I tell you there is no mistaking the feelings of the people.
The government can call into the field 75,000 troops and ten and
twenty times 75,000 if it should be necessary, and find the means
of maintaining them too. It is all a mistake about the northern
pocket being so sensitive. In times like the present no people
are more ready to give of their time or of their abundant means.
No impartial man can conceal from himself the fact, that in
all these troubles the southerners have been the aggressors, and
the administration has stood purely on the defensive, more on the
defensive than she would have dared to have done, but for her
consciousness of right and the certainty of right prevailing in the
end.
The news to-day is that Virginia has gone out of the Union.
But for the influence she will have on the border States, this is
not much to be regretted. Her position or rather that of eastern
Virginia has been more reprehensible from the beginning than
that of South Carolina. She should be made to bear a heavy
portion of the burden of the war for her guilt.
In all this I can but see the doom of Slavery*
This letter and one to his father and to his brother-in-
law put an end to any stories concerning his lack of
patriotism. He was awake and eager.
On Saturday of the same week he went with Rowley
and Rawlins and Orvil Grant into Hanover, a neighboring
village, and there he made his first set speech; "and it
was a good one, too — short and to the point."
Meanwhile the company of Jo Daviess Guards had
been organized, and the men, recalling Captain Grant's
record and his knowledge of military affairs, offered him
the captaincy of it. He thanked them, but refused. " I
think I can serve the State better at Springfield," he said
frankly.
He explained to his friends : " I can't afford to reenter
service as a captain of volunteers. I have served nine
years in the regular army, and I am fitted to command a
regiment." He further said: "I will do anything that
lies in my power to assist the company in getting into
service. I will go down to Springfield, if necessary."
* Quoted by Burr in his "Life and Deeds of Grant."
160 LIFE OF GRANT
Upon his withdrawal, A. L. Chetlain was made captain.
He was a vigorous young man, and had been the first
man to volunteer.
Captain Grant was in hourly demand thereafter. He
selected the cloth and superintended the making of the
uniforms; he drilled the company as a whole and in
squads; he instructed the officers, Captain Chetlain and
Lieutenants Campbell and Dixon ; and in one week from
the date of the second war meeting the company was
organized, uniformed, and ready to move upon the enemy.
In true provincial blare and bluster, it marched through
the streets, preceded by the fire company, the Masonic
Assembly, the Odd Fellows, the mayor, and other civic
means of splendor, while Captain Grant, with carpet-bag
in hand, stood modestly in the crowd on the walk and
watched them pass. To avoid the crowd, he fell in behind
the column, and quietly, with head pensively drooping,
marched in their wake across the bridge, and entered the
train for Springfield. No one remembers his walk to the
depot, save one or two small boys who were in the rear of
the rush. One was Henry Chetlain, brother to the cap
tain of the Jo Daviess Guards. He recalls that the carpet
bag was limp and gaunt.
CHAPTER XXIV
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS
DURING the month of May, 1861, Springfield, the
capital city of Illinois, seethed like a pot with orators
and soldiers and place-seekers and glory-hunters. Lin
coln's call for troops had been made, the volunteers were
pouring in, the legislature was in extraordinary session,
and nearly every public man in the State was at the seat
of government to advise, instruct, or wheedle the gov
ernor and his staff. Nobody knew what to do or how to
do it. The streets were filled with the tramp of squadrons,
the snarl of the drum, and the wail of the fife. The whole
State seemed marching.
Governor Richard Yates, a man of keen intelligence
and good intentions, but of little military knowledge, was
at his wit's end. What with political advisers, regiments
appealing to be recognized, and the work of organizing
and arming such as had already been accepted (keep
ing all the while on the safe side of persons supposed to
hold the — th district in the hollow of their hands), he
was as busy as any man in the North at that time. The
great State of Illinois had but just ceased to be a border
State, and had but very loose military organizations; it
scarcely reached organization at all.
The governor's office was thronged twenty rows deep
with people of importance (or fancied importance), and
he had little time to give to the modest and unimpressive
ex-soldier from Galena who came to tell him that the Jo
Daviess Guards were ready to be mustered in, and also
to say that he desired to aid the government in some
161
1 62 LIFE OF GRANT
capacity. The governor curtly said: " I 'm sorry to say,
captain, there is nothing for you to do. Call again."
Captain Grant turned away much chagrined. He had
reached this interview after hours of waiting, and by aid
of a letter from his local political leader, Mr. E. B. Wash-
burne, and now saw his friend's letter go into the waste-
basket, and heard the polite phrase, which meant nothing,
" Call again."
However, the " Daily Register" uttered an unconscious
word for him, for the next day after his arrival, under the
caption, " Still They Come," the editor spoke in praise of
the uniformed, well-drilled company from Galena, " one
of the few ready to enter immediately on active service."
The drilling and uniforming were the outcome of Grant's
experience and activity, but of this the editor was un
aware.
Grant had left Galena with a very slender purse as well
as a very lank carpet-bag, and was in poor condition for
a long waiting at the door of office. He knew no one
save Captain Chetlain and a few of the private soldiers in
the Jo Daviess Guards, and, worst of all, in the midst of
the martial preparation he had no part. He saw their
great need of him, but was absolutely powerless to put in
a guiding hand.
In order to keep expenses as low as possible, he shared
the rent of a room with Captain Chetlain, and took his
meals at the Chenery House, near by.
He began to make acquaintances slowly. R. H.
McClellan, newly elected member from Galena, came to
him and talked with him, and became convinced of his
value as a military leader in a small way. He had reached
no acquaintance with Grant in Galena, but his connection
with the Guards led to closer study, though he saw little
of him. Captain Chetlain, however, still continued to
profit by Captain Grant's instruction. Each night, as the
two men returned to their room, some point of military
organization was taken up and discussed; and Captain
Chetlain spread the knowledge thus gained among his
company officers. *:.
At meal-time each day Grant met McClellan, J. E.
Grant's letter offering his services to the government.
In the original letter the last three lines and the signature are on a second page.
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS 163
Smith, and other of his Galena neighbors, and was en
couraged by them to remain a little longer. They knew
the need of his services. All the talk was about the weak
ness of the State's military organization. The governor
was overwhelmed with volunteers, but had no one to
muster them in or make use of them effectively. Grant
impressed every one he talked with as a man who knew
military forms and regulations, but he had not secured the
attention of any of the influential politicians of his county.
He came into Mr. McClellan's room, one night, saying
abruptly : "I'm going home. The politicians have got
everything here ; there 's no chance for me. I came
down because I felt it my duty. The government edu
cated me, and I felt I ought to offer my services again.
I have applied, to no result. I can't afford to stay here
longer, and I 'm going home."
He determined to leave on the evening train. Gov
ernor Yates took his meals at the same hotel, and had
come to observe Captain Grant and to inquire about him
a little more particularly. The evening Grant determined
to quit the capital he left the supper-room before the
governor rose, and was standing on the steps when he
came out. " Captain Grant, I understand you are about
leaving the city," said the governor.
" That is my intention," replied Grant.
" I wish you 'd remain overnight, and call at my office
in the morning."
Grant remained, called on the governor, and was
assigned to a desk in the adjutant-general's department.
The office of adjutant-general of the State of Illinois at
that time was about equivalent to a janitorship of the
little arsenal, which was hardly more imposing than a
corn-crib. Its incumbent was expected to sweep out the
arsenal twice a year, and for this he drew a salary of five
hundred dollars. The office was given to some political
auxiliary to whom the honor of being called general made
up for the lack of salary. The adjutant-general at that
time was Mr. T. S. Mather, who is frankly described by
old citizens as being " no good on earth as adjutant-gen
eral. He was an insurance agent, a big, showy, good-
1 64 LIFE OF GRANT
natured fellow, and up to the breaking out of the war he
had no special office for transacting the State's business."
The pressure of military responsibility which now fell
upon Tom Mather was very great, and Governor Yates,
though a college-bred man and of a bright mind, was quite
as unmilitary. They needed Captain Grant's experience
desperately, and yet they had not sense or courage enough
to use him. Mather grudgingly set Grant to the most
elementary of tasks. For several days he made out blanks,
sitting at a three-legged table in the bare anteroom of the
improvised adjutant's office. " Any boy could do my
work," he said, in disgust, to Captain Chetlain. But the
position was not barren of results. It enabled him to
meet men and to answer questions, and it soon became
noised abroad that he was a West Point graduate and a
veteran of the Mexican War. Above all, it became known
that any one could ask any military question of Captain
Grant, and receive a clear, concise, and definite answer.
John M. Palmer, passing through the office one day,
asked who he was, and was told, " He 's a dead-beat
military man — a discharged officer of the regular army."
Nevertheless the knowledge spread that the " dead-beat
military man " knew things important to know. And yet,
while the whole State was resounding with the clamor of
drum and fife, while the confusion deepened, while the
need of his skill increased, they kept him idle or set him
at small clerical tasks. He ruled blanks, he wrote out
military forms and orders, and decided questions of mili
tary regulations; he dug up old muskets in the arsenal,
and made report thereon to the governor — doing uncom
plainingly tasks almost menial in character, and yet making
steady progress.
He became general military adviser of the whole office,
but so quietly that no one realized it. Then he was made
drill-master at Camps Yates and Butler, the one on the
western outskirts of the town, the other on the east. Dur
ing the temporary absence of General Pope he was made
commander of Fort Yates. Reports of his efficiency there
encouraged Governor Yates to appoint him " mustering
officer and aide," at a salary of three dollars per day, and
the complimentary rank of colonel.
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS 165
This step evidently aroused some criticism, for a slur
ring article appeared in the Jacksonville "Journal," com
plaining of Governor Yates for appointing aides with rank
as colonel; especially did the writer cry out against the
pay, which was absurdly high! Nevertheless the gov
ernor sent Grant into the field to muster in certain
regiments, and in the adjutant-general's office are some
of his reports, signed, " U. S. Grant, mustering officer";
and some of the commanders of the regiments mustered in
by him in their reports speak of him as " Colonel Grant."
On the 1 4th of May he went to Mattoon to muster in the
regiment of the Seventh Congressional District.
The history of this regiment is of great interest. It
was made up of lusty young men from the farms, shops,
and offices of the district, and at the time Grant went out
to muster it in it was commanded by "Colonel" Simon
S. Goode. He had led a company from Decatur into the
encampment, and as he strode across the green he had
so won the hearts of all the officers and men that his elec
tion had been almost unanimous. He seemed the ideal
soldier, tall, straight, and resolute of glance. He wore a
gray flannel shirt, a broad hat, and tall boots. At his
belt-clasp was a huge bowie-knife, and on either side were
three pepper-box revolvers. He looked to be quite ca
pable of putting down the Rebellion alone. As a matter
of fact he knew as little of military affairs as his corporals.
Grant spent two days with the regiment ; and notwith
standing the personal splendor of Colonel Goode, and the
glamour of his record as a Nicaraguan filibuster, the
quiet mustering officer made so deep an impression upon
the officers that they named their rendezvous Camp Grant.
This arose partly from the influence of Lieutenant-Colonel
Alexander and First Lieutenant Joseph W. Vance. Alex
ander had been in the Mexican War, and young Vance
had been two years at West Point.
Colonel Grant was an object of admiration to the young
cadet. This was due in part to the fact that Grant was
the first officer young Vance had seen clothed with
authority from the State ; and then Grant was a West-
Pointer and a veteran, and knew his duties. Everything
he did was done without hesitation. He was a vivid
166 LIFE OF GRANT
contrast to Goode. He was a little bit stooped at that
time, and wore a cheap suit of clothes ; but the more dis
cerning were not blinded by his modest appearance. On
the night of his return to Springfield Lieutenant Vance
went to the hotel to see him. He found him sitting alone,
smoking abstractedly.
Vance introduced himself, and they had a long talk;
at least, Vance talked, and Grant listened, with a peculiar
sidewise glance. It was a rainy night, and a long time
before train-time, and the young cadet felt sure that
Colonel Grant was glad to have his company. The boy
had not talked long before he began to disclose the real
character of Goode : that he was a drunkard and a crank ;
that he was accustomed to go about at night with a long
cloak wrapped around him, personating the great generals
of the past ; that he was constantly quoting Napoleon, and
often said, " I never sleep " ; that he made flamboyant
speeches to the men, and did all kinds of unmilitary things.
While going on to say that the men were beginning to
understand Goode's worthlessness, the boy became aware
that he was talking out of school to a superior officer ; and
not only that, but there was something in this man's silence
and in his strange glance which made the cold sweat break
out all over the other. He saw that he had committed
a gross breach of military discipline. However, Colonel
Grant said nothing in reproof, and Lieutenant Vance
retired rather abruptly. " A few days later he was made
drill-master of the regiment, upon Colonel Grant's recom
mendation."
Grant now went to one or two other points to muster
in regiments, and on the 2Oth of May, or thereabouts,
returned to Springfield, and drew a voucher for his pay,
amounting to one hundred and thirty dollars.* He did
* The voucher reads :
" SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, May 22.
" This is to certify that Captain U. S. Grant, as aide to the governor and
mustering officer, is entitled to the sum of one hundred and thirty dollars.
" T. S. MATHER,
" Adjutant-General Illinois Militia.
'* Approved by Governor Yates,
" May 24, iS6i "
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS 1 67
not get the money till long after, though his need was
great.
This ended his work for the State. Charles Lamphier,
editor of the " Register," came upon him at the door of
the Chenery House, a few days later, looking fagged out,
lonesome, poor, and dejected.
" What are you doing here, captain?"
" Nothing — waiting," was his spiritless reply.
Captain John Pope was stationed at Springfield during
this time as mustering officer for the United States. He
was a fine-looking man, and entirely overshadowed the
plain little man who was serving the governor. He pa
tronized Grant a little. Through him, no doubt, Governor
Yates and others were made aware of the conditions under
which Grant had resigned from the army. There is no
evidence of ill will in this, but when asked concerning
Grant, Captain Pope could only state what he knew to be
current gossip in army circles. Thus almost every public
man in the capital became possessed of Captain Grant's
saddest history. This militated sharply against him,
though he was the most abstemious of men during all
this period.
Shortly after this he returned to Galena. His visit is
chronicled by the daily paper, and he achieved the first
editorial notice of his life on the following day. Mr.
Houghton, the editor, made a call upon him, and after a
long interview returned to his office, and wrote a notable
paragraph concerning him.
" We are now in want of just such soldiers as he is,
and we hope the government will invite him to higher
command. He is the very soul of honor, and no man
breathes who has a more patriotic heart. We want among
our young soldiers the influence of the rare leadership of
men like Captain Grant."
Nevertheless, when Captain Grant wrote to the adjutant-
general at Washington, proffering his services, his letter
remained unanswered, and upon his return to Springfield
he found himself no longer able even to serve as aide to
the governor. He had been used when necessity com
pelled ; but the regiments were all mustered in, the clerks
1 68 LIFE OF GRANT
were beginning to get the run of military usages, and
nothing remained for Mustering Officer Grant except en
listment as a private soldier, or command of a regiment.
Yates did not think of giving him command. " Grant
was a carpet-bagger, scarcely a citizen of the State." He
had no political influence, and stood no chance with the
orators and wire-pullers who crowded for position. He
was considered a " military dead-beat " by the politicians,
and a sort of " decayed soldier " by the citizens. He was
poorly dressed, decidedly unimposing in appearance, and
army gossip put a blot against his name on the rolls of
the old Fourth Infantry. Seeing nothing ahead in Illinois,
he went to St. Louis to see General Fremont, but failed
to do so; and on his way back stopped at Casey ville,
where Colonel Chetlain was camped with his regiment
He again assisted Chetlain in military forms and regula
tions, and spent the night with him.
" It is strange," he said to Chetlain, in a sad and musing
tone, " that a man of my experience and education cannot
secure a command."
Under these conditions he saw the futility of staying
longer in Illinois, and decided to go to Ohio, to Cincin
nati, where George B. McClellan was already in command
of a military district. He had a faint hope that McClellan,
when he saw him, would offer him a position on his staff.
He called on two successive days at his office, but failed
to see him on either occasion. McClellan, like Fremont,
did not care to be bothered by the " decayed soldier."
He was now fairly at the end of his resources. During
this period of discouragement he visited his old comrade
Carr B. White, in Georgetown, Ohio. To White he nar
rated his many attempts to get back into the service, but
received very little aid. White suggested going to
Columbus. The village of Georgetown was not an over-
enthusiastic Union town, and Captain Grant's visit was
not a very pleasant one.
Going back to Cincinnati, he met Chilton White, who
was a member of the legislature. To him he told his
story, and ended by saying: " I Ve tried to reenter service
in vain. I must live, and my family must live. Perhaps
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS 169
I could serve the army by providing good bread for them.
You remember my success at bread-baking in Mexico? "
White replied that there ought to be a command for
him, and asked him to stay in Cincinnati. " I 'm going
to Columbus, and I '11 see what can be done." In a few
days he returned with a commission for Grant as colonel
of the Twelfth Ohio, but found Grant much elated over
a telegram which he had that day received. It was from
Governor Yates. " Will you accept the command of the
Seventh District Regiment?"
He had already telegraphed acceptance, and thanking
White for his kindness, he returned to Springfield with a
jubilant soul, but poor as ever; and Ohio lost the chance
of sending Captain Grant back into service.
Meanwhile dramatic events were swiftly succeeding one
another in the regiment commanded by Colonel Goode.
A bread riot broke out at Mattoon early in June, and a
little later the guard-house, becoming intolerably infested
with vermin, was burned by the men. Goode was either
powerless to prevent disturbance, or careless of it. Reck
less spirits foraged upon the neighboring farms, stealing
pigs and chickens, while others howled drunkenly through
the streets of the town. " There was n't a chicken within
four miles of us," said an old sergeant. There was much
complaint of the rowdyism of a number of the soldiers,
and at last the governor ordered the regiment to Spring
field. On the 1 5th of June, in a letter to the adjutant-
general, Goode reported the regiment in Camp Yates.
However, the change did not quell the disturbance.
The men of the regiment had sized Goode up, and
there was a great deal of talk about his inefficiency.
Several of the officers determined never to enter service
with Goode in command, and, with the self-confidence of
youth, Lieutenant Vance determined to let the governor
know how they felt about the matter. He knew Mr.
Hatch, the Secretary of State, and, accompanied by Lieu
tenant Armstrong, went to call upon him. They stated
the situation, and asked Hatch to bring the matter to the
governor's attention, requesting him either to appoint a
new colonel or let the officers elect one.
I7O LIFE OF GRANT
Hatch said : " You had better talk with Colonel Palmer
about it. His advice will be better than mine."
Colonel Palmer advised them to see the governor, and
at once took them in and introduced them.
" Governor, these young gentlemen want to talk with
you about the condition of the Seventh District Regiment."
The young men then stated the case. The governor
listened in silence. At the end he simply remarked : " The
matter will be inquired into."
Shortly after this the governor invited all the commis
sioned officers of the regiment to come to his office to
confer upon the condition of the regiment. He said he
had heard that a new colonel was asked for, and he wished
to get at the wishes of each man. He thought, however,
that, in place of beginning with the highest officer in rank,
he would reverse the order and begin with the lowest.
This was a delicate way of recognizing that Lieutenant-
Colonel Alexander was a possible candidate for the posi
tion. The result of the poll was a strong expression
of opinion in favor of Grant. The governor listened
thoughtfully.
Some ten or twelve citizens (political selections) had
already been appointed colonels, and criticisms were not
wanting. More than this, it began to look a great deal like
war. The matter of leading a regiment of soldiers south
looked less like a summer excursion, and candidates were
not quite so numerous; and, last of all, the regiment of
the Seventh District, under the singular command of
Simon Goode, had won a hard reputation throughout the
State, and political colonels eyed its disordered ranks
with a certain apprehension. As a matter of fact, the
governor had offered the colonelcy to several men, only
to have it refused. At the end of the statement of the
officers, he turned to old Jesse Dubois, the rugged Auditor
of State, from whose district the regiment came, and said :
" Dubois, here are the officers of your regiment asking for
Captain Grant. Shall I appoint him?"
And Dubois, who had seen something of Grant, replied :
" I 've no objection."
" Very well; telegraph Colonel Grant to come on."
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS 1 71
The "Daily Register" of the following day contains
the first mention of Grant's name: " Captain Grant of Jo
Daviess County, formerly of the regular army, has been
appointed by Governor Yates colonel of the Seventh Dis
trict Regiment, now in camp in Camp Yates, in place of
Colonel Goode."
Officers and men alike looked forward eagerly to the
arrival of Colonel U. S. Grant. There was some cere
mony attending his introduction to his new command.
John A. McClernand and John A. Logan, members of
Congress, were in the city, and were both invited to speak
to the troops. Colonel Grant had never met either of
these gentlemen, though he knew of them as prominent
politicians. McClernand he believed to be a fervid Union
man, but of Logan he was a little doubtful. It was Logan
who accompanied Colonel Grant to the camp, and on the
way out said :
" Colonel, the regiment is a little unruly. Do you
think you can manage them ? "
" I think I can," was the quiet reply.
In the amphitheater of the State fair-grounds, which
formed Camp Yates, they found the troops assembled like
an audience, ready to enjoy and applaud the speeches of the
famous orators, and incidentally to greet their new colonel.
McClernand spoke first. After a vigorous and florid
speech teeming with historical allusion, he concluded:
" Having said this much, allow me, Illinoisans, to present
to you my friend and colleague in Congress, the Hon.
John A. Logan. He is gifted with eloquence, and will
rouse you to feel as the Athenians felt under the elo
quence of Demosthenes. They asked to be immediately
led against Philip."
Mr. Logan was greeted with cheers, and in the course
of his address spoke of the vile partizan assaults which
had been made on him, and urged that it was the private
duty of every man to rally to the flag; and the loyalty of
his audience rolled back in thunderous applause. He
urged the regiment, when the time came to exchange
their short-time State service for enlistment in the na
tional army, to move as one man.
172 LIFE OF GRANT
" You can't fall out now," he said with a sudden change
of tone. " If you go home now to Mary, she will say,
' Why, Tom, are you home from the war so soon ? ' ' Yes.'
' How far did you get? ' ' Mattoon.' "
The sarcasm in his slurring utterance of the word " Mat-
toon " was answered by hearty laughter — laughter which
turned many a holiday militiaman into a resolute soldier.
With a final appeal to their patriotism and valor, he intro
duced and led forward the imperturbed colonel, who had
remained in changeless attitude for nearly two hours at
the back of the platform.
" Allow me to present to you your new commander,
Colonel U. S. Grant."
Many of the soldiers observed him for the first time.
They were astonished and disappointed. Logan towered
majestically erect, powerful, handsome, with coal-black
hair and flashing eyes ; by his side Grant, in plain citizen's
clothes, seemed poor and weak. He looked like a grave
and thoughtful country doctor, who had been weather-
beaten in storms and saddened by scenes of human suffer
ing, and was entirely lacking in martial bearing. How
ever, some enthusiast raised a cheer, and there were loud
calls for a speech.
" Grant! Grant!"
" Grant! A speech."
He walked a step or two toward them, and the men
became silent. They were accustomed to speeches, to
bombastic appeals, and were eager to test his quality.
At last he spoke, not loud, but clear and calm, and with
a peculiar quality and inflection which surprised and im
pressed every officer, and gave the whole regiment a new
sensation .
" MEN, GO TO YOUR QUARTERS."
The men sat dazed, astounded. It took time to grasp
its entire significance. In the clip of this man's lips, in
the clear-cut utterance of his command, and in the subtle
inflection of his voice was made manifest the natural com
mander of men. The time for oratory was past. The
period of action had come.
As for the veteran of Monterey and Churubusco, a thrill
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS 173
of exultation ran through his blood. He was poor, — too
poor to buy a uniform, — but he was in command again,
and serving the United States. Everything now took on
direction and certainty. He knew the essentially fine
quality of his men, and felt confident of his power to bring
them under control.
As he stepped to the center before the regiment that
night, the men looked at one another in amusement, and
some were so bold as to jest in low voices concerning him.
He wore nothing military save a pair of gray trousers
with a stripe running down the outside seams, and an old
sword, which he had found at the arsenal, such as the
officers wore in the Mexican War.
It had been the habit of Colonel Goode to seize upon
the closing moment in daily parade to make a speech,
and almost invariably to end by saying: "I know this
regiment, men and officers alike, would march with me to
the cannon's mouth ; but to renew and verify that pledge,
the regiment will move forward two paces."
The regiment now expected a speech from Colonel
Grant. He returned the salute of the adjutant, and said
to the aligned officers :
" A soldier's first duty is to learn to obey his com
mander. I shall expect my orders to be obeyed as exactly
and instantly as if we were on the field of battle."
That was all, but again those who stood nearest him
felt a little thrill of the blood. His voice had certainly
precision and command in it.
As the men turned back to quarters, discussion broke
forth. Rustic jokes were passed upon him, and one young
fellow made insulting gestures behind his back. Another
daredevil slipped up behind him, and flipped his hat from
his head. Grant turned and said, " Young man, that 's
not very polite," and walked on to his quarters.
" What do they mean by sending down a little man
like that to command this regiment?" asked an indig
nant private. " He can't pound dry sand in a straight
hole."
" He may be like a singed cat, more alive than he
looks," said another.
!74 LIFE OF GRANT
"Nonsense! He can't make a speech. Look at him!
Look at the clothes he wears! Who is he, anyhow?"
" Boys, let me tell you something," said a sergeant. " I
stood close enough to him to see his eyes and the set of
his jaw. I '11 tell you who he is : he 's the colonel of this
regiment."
In less than twenty-four hours Colonel Grant was called
a "monster," a "fiend." The picnic, the filibustering
expedition, had become a military regiment under military
discipline.
A man of action, of discipline, of war, of experience,
had assumed command. His lightest word was to be con
sidered. He did not threaten, nor wheedle, nor persuade ;
he commanded ; and in the quiet glance of his blue-gray
eyes, in the line of his lips, and in the quick downward
inflections of his voice, there was something inexorable.
He was never angry, never vindictive, but he was master.
He stopped all drinking. He made the picket-line a
reality. He put an end to foraging, arresting every in
subordinate and making him understand that lawlessness
was past. Colonel Goode appeared that first night in the
ranks, and there were camp rumors of insubordination
brewing; but Grant arrested all that by ordering Goode
from the regiment, and he slipped away into obscurity,
to be seen no more.
A big, worthless cur resisted arrest and defied the offi
cers. Grant appeared, serene as ever.
"What is the matter?"
" This man persists in bringing liquor into camp, and
refuses to give it up."
" Put him in the guard-house."
" He resists arrest."
The man began to swagger. Grant bore down upon
him. There was something in his unwavering eyes and
in his unfaltering step which made the bully hesitate.
Grant seized him by the collar and gave him a quick
jerk which made him spin like a top. Before he had
gathered his faculties together he was hustled to the gate
and kicked into the road.
" Get out of my regiment," said the colonel. " I don't
CAPTAIN GRANT AND THE POLITICAL COLONELS 175
want you in it. You 're not worth disciplining. If you
come back I '11 have you shot."
The second morning there were nearly a score of men
tied up for leaving camp against orders, and for drunken
ness and disorder, among them a dangerous man called
" Mexico," who cursed his commander and said : " For
every minute I stand here I '11 have an ounce of your
blood."
" Gag that man," said Grant, quietly.
One by one, as the hours passed, the other offenders
were released by the officers of the guard ; but Grant
released Mexico himself. He considered it well to let his
men know that the bragger was harmless.
This ended all question of Grant's power to command
both himself and his men. Recalcitrants still read books
of military regulations, and denied his right to do this or
that ; but the great majority of the regiment, being excel
lent men and good soldiers, welcomed a colonel who knew
his duties and the limits of his command.
But even with this first recognition of his place and his
power Grant had not escaped further humiliation. He
had neither horse nor sword nor uniform, and, what was
worse, had no money to buy them. His claim on the
State was still unpaid.
He obtained leave of absence, and returned to Galena
to see his family and to secure necessary equipment. He
was forced to borrow this money, and, for some reason,
to borrow it outside his father's family. His old friend
and valiant defender, A. A. Collins, once more assisted
him. He was still in debt to people in St. Louis, and
now assumed a further load of three hundred dollars
with which to buy his necessary outfit. His father had
either grown tired of lending money to his improvident
eldest son, or Colonel Grant did not care to ask it. The
fact remains that he borrowed the money through Mr.
Collins.
On the 28th of June the Seventh District Regiment
was mustered in and became the Twenty-first Illinois
Volunteers. Apparently little ceremony attended this
event, for no mention of it appears in the daily papers;
176 LIFE OF GRANT
but the editor of the " Register " speaks of visiting the
camp and finding the men " buoyant under the command
of Colonel Grant." They were ready to move, and when
a call was made upon Governor Yates by General Fremont
to send a regiment to the northern part of the State of
Missouri, Grant said: " Send me."
" I have no transportation," replied the governor.
" I '11 find transportation," was the quick response. On
the 2d of July he issued his first marching order, and on
the 3d of July the men of the Twenty-first Illinois set
their faces toward war, the first regiment to march soldier-
fashion out of the State.
Every day of the march developed his soldierly qualities.
He taught his men how to mess, how to take care of
themselves on the march. He put them to hard drill, and
stopped all straggling. His guard- line cut off all skylark
ing of nights. He allowed no whisky in the carnp. And
yet, with all this strict discipline, he was never angry nor
vindictive. If he punished a man, he did it in a quiet
way, and in a spirit which did not enrage the one punished.
" He looked very fine on horseback in his new colonel's
uniform, and the regiment became proud of him, well
knowing they had the best commander and the best regi
ment in the State."
CHAPTER XXV
GRANT'S GROWING COMMAND
A FEW of the readers of the St. Louis, Springfield,
Galena, and Chicago papers during the summer of
1 86 1 followed Grant as he emerged step by step from the
obscurity of the unnamed and little regarded into the light
of editorial criticism.
He first appeared as " Colonel Grant," and was reported
to be on his way to defend Missouri with a regiment of
Illinois volunteers. While still a colonel he was put in
command of several regiments at Mexico, Missouri, and
there he perfected his organization and brought his soldiers
under strict discipline. Here he achieved his first head
line: "Colonel Grant Moves against Harris." And in
this sudden blazoning forth of his name his old acquain
tances in St. Louis were made aware of his identity.
During his absence, one day, a telegram arrived at his
headquarters in Mexico, Missouri, addressed to " Brigadier-
General Grant." This superscription gave his subordi
nates the clue, and when he returned his regiment drew
up in line, and raised their first cheer for General Grant.
It was peculiarly fitting that the Twenty-first Illinois
should use these two words for the first time among
American soldiers.
The message was from the Hon. Mr. Washburne, say
ing : " You have this day been appointed by the President
brigadier-general of volunteers. Accept my congratula
tions." The Illinois representatives had sent in his name
together with a batch of others, and Lincoln, who was
177
i;8 LIFE OF GRANT
turning out brigadiers in squads, had made no exception
of Grant. He was commissioned without further indorse
ment.
Immediately after his promotion General Grant was
put in command of a district at Ironton, Missouri, where
he entered upon preparations for a campaign against
General Hardee, and dreamed over maps and planned
great campaigns down the Mississippi Valley, which, it
seemed, he had little chance of ever making realities; for
he was still very obscure, and nobody believed in him
specially, save Editor Houghton of Galena, Washburne
in Washington, and the men of the Twenty-first Illinois
Regiment.
Shortly after his promotion he went up to St. Louis,
and an old friend speaks of seeing him at this time : " I
found him a very different person from the gloomy man
I used to know in the streets of St. Louis a year before.
He was in his element, and was calm, alert, and confi
dent."
All through Missouri are men and women willing to
testify to the justice and courtesy of Grant's command.
He stopped all pillaging, and insisted that everything used
by the army should be paid for. He was kind and ap
proachable always, and all petitioners were sure to get a
hearing. He had no wish to impress upon any one his
importance as commander. Yet he showed himself capable
of larger things, and men found this out for themselves.
He never talked about himself, and never asked pro
motion.
Soon after the receipt of his commission, and just before
he was to move against Hardee, General B. M. Prentiss
appeared at Ironton, with general orders from Fremont
which placed him in chief command of all the forces in
that district.
Grant was deeply hurt and discouraged by this order,
which made no mention of his name ; it merely assigned
Prentiss to the command. He could not understand the
animus of this arbitrary proceeding, but submitted, merely
entering a protest: "I am your senior in command, and
I do not consider you are relieving me. I am not bound
GRANT'S GROWING COMMAND 179
by military etiquette to obey you." He then gave to
Prentiss the situation of the troops, and went to St. Louis.
He had great difficulty in seeing Fremont, who also con
sidered him of little account. Grant reached him at last,
and was immediately ordered to command at Jefferson
City.
A few days later Fremont, in a letter to Prentiss, throws
some light upon his previous action :
When you were ordered to go to Ironton and take the place
of General Grant, who was transferred to Jefferson City, it was
under the impression that his appointment was of a later date
than your own. By the official list published it appears, how
ever, that he is your senior in rank.
This letter would seem to indicate that Grant laid his
case before Fremont, and pending investigation had been
placed in command at Jefferson City.
General Grant had organized his troops, and was once
more ready to proceed to battle, this time against Sterling
Price, when he was again relieved. Colonel Jeff C. Davis
appeared, with an imperative order from General Fremont
which required Grant to report at St. Louis for special
orders. By these special orders General Grant was
assigned the command of all the troops of southeastern
Missouri and southern Illinois. It gave to him the com
mand of the expedition against General Jeff Thompson,
and brought him into the region of great campaigns.
Grant was profoundly pleased at finding himself once more
headed toward the Mississippi.
This change of front was the outcome (according to the
testimony of Montgomery Blair) of the plan of a Missis
sippi campaign which Grant had sent to the President in
early May, through the kindness of Governor Yates. At
a cabinet meeting friends of General Grant asked that he
be put in command at Cairo, and Lincoln, recalling Grant's
name and plan, readily agreed to make the suggestion to
Fremont.
Cairo, at the time Brigadier- General Grant assumed
command of the district, was a small, low-lying town built
180 LIFE OF GRANT
along the river. It was not a sightly town, and it was
an extremely disloyal town, filled with rough river-men,
gamblers, and roustabouts from the four great rivers which
center in this region. The one tolerable hotel, the St.
Charles, fronted the levee, and there General Grant took
up his headquarters.
His office consisted of a suite of rooms in a business
block a short distance up the street. Its windows fronted
on the wide river, and there he spent his quiet hours,
smoking his long pipe, and gazing abstractedly out upon
the water, with a map upon his knees, planning battles to
open the Mississippi. He was a great student of maps,
and they formed a large part of his wall decorations.
" He had not a single trained soldier or officer of the reg
ular army under his command. Officers and men alike
required instruction. He was busy from morning till
night, — and frequently from night till morning, — writing
orders, indorsing papers, and doing other work that fell to
him." He had few leisure hours.
All accounts agree that the townspeople of Cairo were
surprised at the unmilitary port and methods of the
general. They were accustomed to the pomp and cere
mony of militia colonels, and the excited charging to and
fro of would-be Napoleons who were already on the
ground. Colonel Oglesby, who was in command of the
post, on being approached by Grant the first time, took
him to be a " refugee who had blown into the place, in
need of transportation to the North."
" I thought I was something of a Napoleon myself,"
said Oglesby, quaintly. " I had my troops spread out all
over the country, and had aides coming and going, and
things in military order, when in comes this small, rusty-
coated man, and sits down at my table and begins to
write orders. It did n't take me long to find out that I
did not know much about war, after all."
But in general the citizens of Cairo knew very little
about General Grant. He attended strictly to his military
duties, and, though always approachable, was an ab
stracted, silent man, absorbed in his own affairs, and little
mindful of social claims. In a few days his coming and
GRANT'S GROWING COMMAND 181
going attracted little notice. He wore no uniform, and
used the least possible military ceremony consistent with
good discipline.
He sent for John A. Rawlins (the fervid orator of the
first war meeting in Galena) to become assistant adjutant-
general on his staff. Rawlins proved a very capable man,
and lifted from his chief's shoulders a great deal of the
business routine of the office. Lieutenant J. D. Webster,
an able soldier who had accompanied the first regiment
from Chicago to Cairo, became adviser and chief of staff.
Brigadier- General Grant demonstrated at once his com
prehension of the situation. The second day after taking
command a scout came in and reported a force of Con
federates moving northward to take Paducah, which was
at the mouth of the Tennessee River, only a short distance
above Cairo. It was the gate to a great waterway, and
Grant perceived at once the importance of its capture.
He telegraphed Fremont for permission to take it. He
received no reply, but nevertheless began to arrange for
the movement. He telegraphed later in the day, with all
preparations made, saying : " Unless I hear from you to
the contrary, I shall move on Paducah to-night."
Not hearing a word from Fremont, at about half-past
ten at night he said to his staff : " I will take Paducah, if
I lose my commission by it."
He took possession of the town early next morning,
without firing a gun. A force of the enemy estimated at
four thousand strong was actually on the way, and within
three hours' march of the city, when the Northern troops
entered. They turned back at the news of Grant's ap
proach, and Paducah was saved to the Union. This was
the first town he had ever entered in hostile manner,
himself in sole command, and he felt it due to the citizens
to explain his presence. On September 6 he issued an
address to the citizens:
PROCLAMATION
To THE CITIZENS OF PADUCAH:
I have come among you, not as an enemy, but as your friend
and fellow-citizen ; not to injure or annoy you, but to respect the
1 82 LIFE OF GRANT
rights and defend and enforce the rights of all loyal citizens.
An enemy in rebellion against our common government has
taken possession of and planted its guns upon the soil of Kentucky
and fired upon our flag. Hickman and Columbus are in his
hands ; he is moving upon your city. I am here to defend you
against this enemy, and to assert and maintain the authority and
sovereignty of your government and mine. I have nothing to
do with opinions. I deal only with armed rebellion and its aiders
and abettors. You can pursue your usual avocations without
fear or hindrance. The strong arm of the government is here
to protect its friends and to punish only its enemies. Whenever
it is manifest that you are able to defend yourselves, to maintain
the authority of your government and protect the rights of all its
loyal citizens, I shall withdraw the forces under my command
from your city. U. S. GRANT.
This prompt action and noble proclamation turned the
tide of the State's sentiment toward union.
Lincoln, reading this dignified address, said : " The
man who can write like that is fitted to command in the
West." It bore out the remarkable statement of Editor
Houghton of the Galena "Gazette": "Just men like
General Grant can put down this rebellion ; vindictive
men never can." And in the House of Representatives,
Richardson of Illinois said, in relation to making Grant a
major-general : " I wish that proclamation could be written
in letters of gold on the sky, that everybody might read
it." Thus Washburne was not alone in his indorsement
of Grant.
Grant returned to Cairo, leaving only a garrison at
Paducah. His troops were eager to fight. Some of the
officers were afraid the war would be over before they
could distinguish themselves sufficiently to go to Congress
on the strength of their military career. They held in
mind Jackson and Harrison and Taylor, and they desired
to make war a short cut to political glory.
Grant also was quite ready to fight, and the chance
came early in November. Up to that time Fremont had
refused to allow him any independent movement; but
upon taking the field against Price in Missouri, he felt it
necessary to have Grant make a " diversion " to keep
GRANT'S GROWING COMMAND 183
General Polk, who was at Columbus, from sending rein
forcements to Price. This diversion resulted in the battle
of Belmont, which was successful, from Grant's point of
view, as it prevented Folk's reinforcing Price.
The Confederates held Columbus, a small village some
twenty miles below Cairo, and had intrenched on the
opposite or western side of the river. Grant, with
McClernand second in command (and, to the citizens of
Cairo, equal in command), left headquarters at about dusk
on the 6th of November, and swung into the current. No
one knew what was to be done, but as the transports
moved on down the river the men said exultantly :
" We 're going to take Columbus."
Grant's boats lay on the river above Belmont till dawn.
At early light he disembarked his troops and moved
against the enemy, whose ranks fell back. The Union
troops pressed on bravely, and after four hours' fighting
carried the camp of the Confederates, and drove them to
the river, where they cowered behind the steep banks,
awaiting capture.
But now began a singular yet natural action. The
Union men lost their heads in joy and self-glorification.
The entire Confederacy had fallen! " This ends it," they
cried exultantly to one another, and went about shaking
hands and shouting with joy, while some of the officers
seized the opportunity to make flamboyant political
addresses to those who would listen. Others fell upon
the camp and began to "appropriate" the spoils. All
order disappeared. The men at this stage of the war
were all generals, and they inferred Grant's plan to have
been the capture and defense of this point — which was
impossible with the force at his command.
Grant, however, was too old a soldier to be caught thus.
The veteran of Cerro Gordo and Molino del Rey did
not lose his head in a skirmish. He saw long lines of
gray soldiers forming on the opposite side of the river;
he saw transports swinging to, ready to disembark troops ;
and he knew the batteries across the river would open as
soon as the true state of affairs became known to the
Confederate commanders. Therefore he tried to rally the
1 84 LIFE OF GRANT
men. He rode among his officers, saying : " Get your
men into line. We must get out of this."
But the confusion and tumult prevented the men from
hearing or heeding the commands of the officers. The
situation called for decisive measures.
" Fire the tents" said the general to an aide.
The tents were fired, and as the smoke rolled over the
trees the batteries of Columbus opened, and began to
heave " two-gallon jugs of grape-shot " into the mob of
blue-coats. This brought the men to their senses. They
dropped their spoils, and became as panic-stricken as
they had been vainglorious a moment before. A rush
toward the boats began.
But their delay had allowed the enemy to send troops
across below and take position behind the Union forces
and between them and the boats. A column of Confed
erates appeared at the right, marching to intercept them,
and soon another was seen on the left.
" My God, we 're surrounded! " cried one of the officers
in Grant's hearing.
" We cut our way in, and we can cut our way out,"
was the grim reply ; and so, in passable order and under
sharp firing, the troops fought their way back to the boats.
There, while the embarking of the wounded was taking
place, Grant rode back alone to visit a rear-guard he had
posted. He was amazed to find they had fled to the
boats. This reconnoitering nearly led to his capture, for
when he came back the boats were under brisk fire of
the enemy's musketry, and were struggling to get out
into the stream, each with the landward wheel spinning
uselessly in the air, the far side being overcrowded with
fleeing soldiery. The general's uniform was covered by
a sort of rain-coat, and his boat's captain gave him no
thought, and was steaming away when an officer cried
out: " Put in your boat; that is General Grant."
There was no path down the steep bank, but Grant's
marvelous command over horses came into use. At his
word, the horse put his fore feet over the bank, slid down
the sand on his haunches, and trotted aboard over a single
gang-plank. This ended the battle of Belmont, which is
GRANT'S GROWING COMMAND 185
forever memorable to the South as " one victory, at least,
over General Grant."
Returning to Cairo, Grant set himself to drilling, pro
visioning, and otherwise preparing his army for active
service. He was eager to push on to the South. Ho
wished to get possession of the Tennessee and Cumberland
rivers before the enemy had time to reinforce and fortify.
But while General Fremont had been ill disposed to take
suggestions, his successor, who had just assumed chief
command in the West, General H. W. Halleck, was even
more reluctant to allow Grant to move on his own
motion.
Grant appealed to General Halleck at once to be allowed
to advance on Forts Henry and Donelson, the fortifica
tions which held the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.
Halleck did not reply, and little was done during Decem
ber but " prepare for war."
On the 6th of January Grant went to St. Louis to see
General Kalleck in person about this movement, and
incidentally to visit his old homes in Gravois and bt.
Louis. This home-coming was not without a certain
gratification. His command was growing; he now con
trolled an important military district, and his troops were
ready for action. At the home of his friends he came
in contact once more with those who had pitied and
patronized him only a year before. He sat at the same
fire with Mr. and Mrs. Boggs, no longer a penniless,
despairing man, but the alert and masterful general of
ten thousand men. Mrs. Boggs now felt her home to be
all too humble for the use of General Grant and the dis
tinguished friends who called to do him honor.
He found his neighbors in Gravois still largely seces-
sional in sentiment, either openly or in secret; but he
went about among them freely, without body-guard, and
to his old-time courtesy and manliness when a farmer
among them he owed his escape from capture by the
"Knights of the Golden Circle." A few hotheads met
to plan his kidnapping, but his old neighbors and friends
arose against the plan and stopped it.
His trip was in a sense a failure. Halleck cut short his
1 86 LIFE OF GRANT
explanation of plans to take Fort Henry, and turned COD
temptuously away. Grant felt this deeply, for, though an
undemonstrative man, he had in fact a soul of keen sensi
bility, and felt discourtesy as poignantly as though it were
a lash.
Meanwhile he was slowly gaining recognition in the
West. Here and there a newspaper correspondent began
to perceive something worth while in the " silent general."
His command was an important one, and his family and
friends were highly surprised and delighted at the distinc
tion he had attained. His father came to see him, in
a transport of returning pride in Ulysses. Nevertheless,
he warned him : " Now, Ulysses, you have a good position,
I hope you will let well enough alone." But Mrs. Grant,
who had never lost faith in him, said : " Ulysses can fill
any position he is called to." He was paying his debts
in St. Louis and Galena, and his wife and children were
thriving and happy. War has its human recompenses,
after aiL
CHAPTER XXVI
GRANT CAPTURES NATIONAL FAME
IN spite of Halleck's rebuff, Grant returned again to his
plan to attack Fort Henry. He was not a man to
allow pique to stand in the way of a great enterprise. He
laid the matter before Commodore Foote, who was in
command of the flotilla of newly finished gunboats then
lying at Cairo ; and the commodore, being much impressed
both with Grant and his plans, joined him in the request
to attack the fort.
At last Halleck consented. Immediately upon receiving
the word Grant began to move. On the 5th of February
he advanced against Fort Henry. It capitulated the next
day, and he telegraphed Halleck the news, giving full
credit to Commodore Foote : " Fort Henry is ours. The
gunboats silenced the batteries before the investment
was completed." And then, with a spirit which had not
before appeared in the Northern army, he said : " I shall
take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th, and return
to Fort Henry." And this he would have done had not
nature laid a strong restraining hand upon his plans.
In place of swift advance across the twelve miles of
land which divided the two rivers and their forts, a period
of annoying delay intervened, accompanied by much
suffering on the part of the troops. Violent storms arose.
Grant was in an agony of impatience, yet nothing could
be done but wait. The roads were swimming in water ;
" the infantry could hardly march, and to move artillery
was impossible." He had only about fifteen thousand
men, and had orders from Halleck to hold Fort Henry
187
1 88 LIFE OF GRANT
and to intrench, though he felt that " fifteen thousand men
were worth more on the I2th than fifty thousand men a
little later."
At last he moved out of Fort Henry, calm and resolute,
although approaching a battle before which all his com
mands and all his Mexico campaigns were insignificant.
Fort Henry had been a gunboat victory, but now his little
army was marching against twenty-one thousand men
strongly intrenched. The unavoidable delay had allowed
the enemy to reinforce by boat from Nashville.
Halleck had conferred with Brigadier-General W. T.
Sherman, who was at that time in St. Louis, and issued
an order assigning Sherman to command of the District
of Cairo, and making Grant commander of the District
of West Tennessee. He was calling loudly for more
troops to reinforce Grant, for he could not, on his own
account, afford to see the attack of Donelson fail. He
sent General W. T. Sherman to Paducah to act as for
warding officer there, and wired General D. C. Buell, who
was commanding the Army of the Ohio in Kentucky :
" Come and help me take Donelson."
When Grant invested the fort the first day he had only
General McClernand and General C. F. Smith with him
— about fifteen thousand men. Commodore Foote had
not arrived, and General Lew Wallace was on the road.
This showed the spirit of Grant's command. He did not
hesitate to assume the responsibility of besieging twenty-
one thousand Confederates, strongly intrenched. Here
was soldierly promptness, dash, and grit. He was cut
off from Halleck and the War Department, and master
of everything in the field. Gideon J. Pillow, the senior in
command of the Confederate forces, was a Mexican War
veteran. Grant knew him, and had no fear of him.
Halleck telegraphed Grant to " strengthen the land side
of Fort Henry, and transfer guns to resist a land attack,"
at the very time the army was closing relentlessly round
Donelson, under Grant's leadership. On the I3th there
was some fighting as the besieging army moved into new
and stronger positions, but the night was more terrible
than the battle upon the troops; they were ordered to
GRANT CAPTURES NATIONAL FAME 189
sleep upon their arms and without camp-fires. Sleet fell,
and it grew bitterly cold toward morning. Grant quar
tered in a farm-house at the left. He slept little, being
apprehensive of an early attack before reinforcements
could arrive.
During the night Commodore Foote's fleet steamed up,
and General Lew Wallace came marching in from Fort
Henry, and took position between Smith and McClernand.
Grant was now confident. He ordered an attack by the
gunboats, while the army held the enemy within the lines,
his plan being to bag the entire Confederate army. The
gunboats failed to get above the batteries, however, and
were forced to fall back disabled, leaving the river open
to the Confederate boats.
That night Grant telegraphed the situation : " Our
troops invest Donelson. ... I feel confident of success."
To General Cullum, Halleck's chief of staff, stationed at
Cairo as forwarding officer, he wired : " Appearances indi
cate now that we will have a protracted siege." It was
well the army did not read this telegram, for the storm
continued, and they were not merely cold, but hungry as
well. They bore it all with such cheer as a freezing and
starving soldier can muster to his comfort. Grant went
to bed thinking that he might be obliged to bring up tents
and shovels, after all.
Before daylight on the I5th he received a note from
Commodore Foote, in command of the flotilla, asking him
to come to the flag-ship, as he was too much injured to
leave the boats. The general at once mounted and rode
away. The roads were very bad, and he could not move
out of a walk. " He came on the boat wearing a battered
old hat, the muddiest man in the army. He was chewing
a cigar, and was perfectly cool and self-possessed." He
found the commodore and his boats about equally disabled.
After a conference with him, Grant gave him leave to
retire, and started upon his return to the front.
On his way he met his aide, white with alarm and
excitement. " The enemy has made a fierce attack on
the forces of McClernand."
Grant set spur to his horse, and left the aide far behind.
190 LIFE OF GRANT
He came upon the scene of action, his old clay-bank
spattering the yellow mud in every direction, a most
welcome figure. There was need of him. With cool
brain and keen eyes, he rode rapidly along the lines. He
saw no dismay in Smith's division ; his command was
intact and eager for battle. Wallace's lines were in
order. But McClernand, on the right, had sustained a
heavy attack, and was still threatened, and the brave but
inexperienced commander was in consultation with General
Wallace and asking for reinforcements. As Grant rode
along he saw the men standing in knots, talking in a most
excited manner. " The soldiers had their muskets, but no
ammunition, while there were tons of it near at hand."
They were disturbed and apprehensive, just at a point
where retreat, even rout, was possible.
The general heard one discouraged man say : " Why,
they have come out to fight all day ; they have got their
knapsacks full of grub." He turned quickly. " Is that
true? Bring me one."
He opened two or three, and found three days' rations
in each. His trained eyes read in all this a different
story. In one minute he showed himself a great com
mander.
He turned to his staff, and said : " They are attempting
to force their way out. The one who attacks first now
will be victorious." Then, to McClernand and Wallace:
" Gentlemen, the position of our right must be retaken.
I shall order an immediate assault on the left. Be ready
to advance at the sound of Smith's guns." As he rode
down the line, his aide, at his direction, called out :
"Fill your cartridge-boxes, quick, and get into line!
The enemy is trying to escape, and must not be permitted
to do so."
At once the Union forces lined up, responsive to the
power of unhesitating leadership. The commander rode
rapidly to the left, arranging a grand assault. He found
General Smith alert, with his troops in order ready to
advance. " General, the enemy has tried to force his way
out on our right. I think you had better attack soon.
He has undoubtedly weakened the line before you."
GRANT CAPTURES NATIONAL FAME 1QI
" Very well, sir," replied Smith ; " I am ready to move
at any time." Grant turned and rode again toward the
center. When all was arranged he sent an aide to tell
General Smith that he was ready.
" General Smith," said the messenger, " you are ordered
to assault immediately and in force."
"Very well, sir; I am ready," said the resolute old
warrior; and drawing his sword, he turned to his troops,
and said : " We are ordered to attack the works imme
diately in front. Are you all ready?"
"We are! " shouted the men, in reply.
" Very well. Ready ! Close ranks ! Charge bayonets !
Double-quick! Forward, march ! " And the left wing of
Grant's army advanced. The assault became general all
along the line, and the enemy was driven back. The con
ditions of the morning were restored; the enemy was
again shut in, and night fell once more upon the Union
forces, unsheltered and hungry, but as confident now of
victory as was their imperturbable commander.
On the night of the I5th, within the fort, a strange and
passionate drama was being enacted. The three Con
federate commanders, Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner, held an
acrimonious council. General Floyd, who had but recently
assumed command, begged leave to turn the command over
to General Pillow. Pillow declined, but was quite willing
that General Buckner should assume the honor and do as
he thought best in the matter. General Buckner was a
soldier, a graduate of West Point, and a Mexican War
veteran. He did not anticipate hanging, provided he
surrendered, and was unwilling to shed the blood of his
soldiers needlessly. He regarded the situation as one
warranting surrender. He accepted the command, and
sat down to write a letter to Grant.
General Pillow begged to know if he were privileged
to depart.
" Yes, provided you go before the terms of capitulation
are agreed upon," was Buckner's curt reply.
Floyd seized two steamers, and escaped with about
three thousand men.
Pillow fled in a flatboat, while Colonel Forrest, in
LIFE OF GRANT
command of the cavalry, forded the river and got safely
away with a regiment of horse.
General Buckner sturdily held his ground, but sent a
messenger to sue for terms ; and in answer Grant replied
in the simplest and most direct manner, with no thought
of how his letter would read to any one except General
Buckner:
No terms except immediate and unconditional surrender can
be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.
Buckner grumbled at these " unchivalrous terms," but
yielded, and when he met Grant within the defenses he
said, with a bow and smile :
" General, as they say in Mexico, this house and all it
contains is yours."
A moment later Grant said : " I thought Pillow was in
command."
" He was," replied Buckner.
"Where is he now?"
" Gone."
"Why did he go?"
" Well, he thought you 'd rather get hold of him than
any other man in the Southern Confederacy."
" Oh," said Grant, quickly, with a smile, " if I 'd got
him I 'd let him go again. He would do us more good
commanding you fellows!"
General Buckner was in fact the Captain Buckner who
had come to Grant's relief so handsomely in New York
in 1854, when he landed from his ship poor and friendless.
Grant recalled this generous action, and while he did not
allow his gratitude to interfere with his duty, yet when
matters of the surrender were finally arranged he placed
his private purse at General Buckner's disposal.
The relations of the two commanders continued ami
cable to the last. Grant did everything he could to make
the men in gray comfortable, " showing himself a humane
and magnanimous conqueror."
With pardonable pride, and with something more than
his usual expression of emotion, Grant issued a congratu-
GRANT CAPTURES NATIONAL FAME 193
latory order to his troops, and sent a despatch of mathe
matical brevity to Halleck announcing his capture of Fort
Donelson. He then sat down to plan an immediate
advance on Nashville, which was uncovered by the fall of
Donelson. He believed that the way was open deep into
the Southern Confederacy, and that by prompt action the
battle of Donelson could be made to mean a hundred
times more than the mere capture of fifteen thousand
troops.
Instantly his great victory flamed over the land. The
ringing of bells, the sound of cannon, the flare of bonfires,
announced the joy of the people over the first great suc
cess in the West. Horsemen galloped up the farm lanes
with shouts of triumph, and the citizens came together to
rejoice, believing that the end of the war had come. Even
metropolitan dailies considered it " the downfall of the
Confederacy," and suddenly the nation inquired: "Who
is this man Grant, who fights battles and wins them ? "
CHAPTER XXVII
GRANT PUT UNDER ARREST BY GENERAL HALLECK
HPHE victory of Donelson lifted General Grant into
A national fame in a day, but it also turned upon him
the burning light of envious criticism. All the disap
pointed contractors, all the jealous political soldiers who
feared that the war had ended without making them dis
tinguished, all the sneering old army officers, turned to
and helped swell the chorus of the " copperhead journals "
of the Northern States that attempted to blacken and dis
credit the character and belittle the powers of General Grant
The feeling that the war was over, and that the victor
of Donelson was to be the national hero, added to the
zeal of his detractors. In the Eastern cities a discussion
waxed bitter as to who deserved the honors of Donelson.
General McClellan's friends claimed them for him ; Foote's
partizans called it a naval victory ; Fremont's adherents
mourned the injustice which had robbed him of his rightful
dues as the projector of this plan ; Brigadier- General
McClernand claimed to have borne the brunt of it; and
Halleck, after thanking everybody remotely concerned
with the expedition except Grant, smilingly appeared on
a hotel balcony in St. Louis, and claimed the lion's share
for himself.
The one honorable exception was Secretary Stanton,
who took no part in the attempt to reap where he had
not sown. He wrote at once an open letter to Editor
Greeley, disclaiming the honor :
SIR: I cannot suffer undue merit to be ascribed to my office
for this action. The glory of our recent victories belongs to the
brave officers and soldiers that fought the battles. No share
194
GRANT UNDER ARREST 195
belongs to me. What, under the blessing of Providence, I con
ceive to be the true organization of victory and military com
bination to end the war was declared in a few words by General
Grant's message to General Buckner: "I propose to move
immediately on your works."
This letter of Stanton's did more to fix the fame of
" Unconditional Surrender Grant " in the minds of the
people than any other one cause at that time.
From all that appears, Halleck had been anxious to
have any one but Grant wear the great honors of the
victory. In his excited manceuvering for position, he
had telegraphed Commodore Foote on the nth: "Make
your name famous by the capture of Fort Donelson and
Clarksville " ; and after the capture of Donelson he had
telegraphed Stanton : " Make Smith major-general, and
all the country will applaud you." He now sent a tele
gram of congratulation to General Hunter in Kansas,
thanking him for promptness in sending reinforcements ;
he also forwarded congratulatory messages to Commodore
Foote, but not one word of congratulation to Grant.
At midnight of the 2Oth, as General Grant and
Commodore Foote were finishing the details of an imme
diate movement on Nashville, a telegram from Halleck
arrived, forbidding gunboats to move above Clarksville.
Grant read the message in silence, and passed it to Com
modore Foote. Foote said : " Well, that ends our move
ment."
Being anxious, however, to know what had happened
at Nashville, Grant next proceeded to Nashville in a
single transport to meet and confer with Buell. He con
sidered this entirely within his province ; but Halleck was
pleased to consider it " leaving command without permis
sion." He had been telegraphing to Grant for several
days without receiving an answer, and was very much
enraged. Of his excited telegrams Grant was unaware.
General McClellan, commander-in-chief, had been asking
Halleck for returns of his troops, and Halleck, in turn,
had been attempting to reach Grant for records of the
troops at Donelson. Halleck, therefore, reported to
196 LIFE OF GRANT
McClellan that Grant had left his command without
leave, and that his troops were in disorder.
McClellan, quite ready to believe ill things of Grant,
gave Halleck power to arrest him, and so in this splendid
moment, when everybody was sounding his praise, when
the question of making him major-general was being
debated, and Congress was passing votes of praise and
thanks to him, Grant was being disgraced by Halleck.
Upon his return from Nashville, some days later, he
found this telegram awaiting him:
You will place General C. F. Smith in command of expedition,
and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you not obey my
orders to report strength and positions of your command?
Grant was astounded. He replied mildly, but with a
strong feeling of deep personal wrong :
Your despatch of yesterday received. I did all I could to
get the returns of the strength of my command. Every move I
made was reported daily to your chief of staff, who must have
failed to keep you properly posted. I have done my very best
to obey orders and to carry out the interests of the service. If
my course is not satisfactory, remove me at once. I do not
wish to impede in any way the success of our armies. I have
averaged writing more than once a day since leaving Cairo to
keep you informed of my position, and it is no fault of mine if
you have not received my letters. My going to Nashville was
strictly intended for the good of the service, and not to gratify
any desire of my own.
Believing sincerely that I must have enemies between you
and myself who are trying to impair my usefulness, I respectfully
ask to be relieved from further duty in the department.
Halleck replied, March 8 :
You are mistaken. There is no enemy between you and me.
There is no letter of yours stating number and position of your
command since capture of Donelson. General McClellan has
asked for it repeatedly with reference to ulterior movements, and
I could not give him the information. He is out of all patience
waiting for it. Answer by telegraph in general terms.
GRANT UNDER ARREST 197
Grant replied :
I will do all in my power to advance the expedition now
started [Smith's expedition toward Corinth, which was rightfully
his own]. You had a better chance for knowing my strength
whilst surrounding Donelson than I had [through Sherman and
Cullum, who were forwarding troops]. Troops were reporting
daily by your order, and were immediately assigned to brigades.
There were no orders received from you till the 28th of February
to make out returns, and I made every effort to get them in as
early as possible. I have always been ready to move anywhere,
regardless of consequences to myself, but with a disposition to
take the best care of the troops under my command. I renew
my application to be relieved from further duty. Returns have
been sent.
Halleck, in reply, explains a little more in detail :
Your letter of the 5th instant, just received, contains the first
and only information of your actual forces. If you have sent
them before, I have not received them. General McClellan
repeatedly ordered me to report to him daily the numbers and
positions of your forces. This I could not do, and the fault
was certainly not mine, for I telegraphed you time and again
for the information, but could get no answer. This certainly
indicated a great want of order and system in your command,
the blame of which was partially thrown on me, and perhaps
justly, for it is the duty of every commander to compel those
under him to obey orders and to enforce discipline. Don't let
such neglect occur again, for it is equally discreditable to you
and to me. I really felt ashamed to telegraph back to Washing
ton time and again that I was unable to give the strength of
your command.
On March I i^by the President's war order, Halleck se
cured his ambitious desire to control all the armies of the
Mississippi. McClellan became the active commander of
the Army of the Potomac, and Halleck commanded Buell,
Hunter, and Smith, with Grant still in the background at
Fort Henry as forwarding officer for Smith.
It was a painful moment to General Grant as he saw
the great army which he had led to victory steaming away
198 LIFE OF GRANT
up the river toward the enemy with another man in com
mand. One of his subordinates called to see him at Fort
Henry, and was much moved by the expression of deep
sadness on the face of his general. He was in great dejec
tion. The army he had organized and led so splendidly
was passing out of his hands.
" After alluding to his position, the general took from
his pocket Halleck's curt despatch. When his friend
looked up from reading it he saw tears on General Grant's
face. He said mournfully : ' I don't know what they
mean to do with me.' Then he added with a sad cadence
in his voice : ' What command have I now ? ' "
Tears on the face of Ulysses Grant meant the keenest
suffering. All seemed lost a second time in his life.
But the chief man of the nation now took a personal
interest in the case. He sent for men who knew Grant
personally, and satisfied himself that an injustice had been
done. On the loth of March, while Grant was being held
in disgrace at Fort Henry, the adjutant-general wrote to
Halleck in a calm and fateful way, saying that the Presi
dent wished General Halleck to investigate and report at
once. Halleck at once acknowledged his previously hasty
action, and completely exonerated Grant:
I am satisfied from investigation that General Grant acted
from good intentions and from a desire to subserve the public
interests.
General Grant has made the proper explanations, and has
been directed to resume his command in the field. As he acted
from a praiseworthy but mistaken zeal for the public service in
going to Nashville and leaving his command, I respectfully
recommend that no further notice be taken of it. There never
has been any want of military subordination on the part of
General Grant, and his failure to make returns of his forces has
been explained as resulting partly from the failure of colonels of
regiments to report to him on their arrival, and partly from an
interruption of telegraphic communication. All these irregu
larities have now been remedied.
Halleck, now in fine fettle over his promotion to chief
command in the West, and understanding that Lincoln
GRANT UNDER ARREST 199
had laid strong hand upon affairs, answered Grant's
repeated desire to be relieved till such time as his case
could go before the higher authorities, by saying:
You cannot be relieved of your command. There is no good
reason for it. I am certain that all which the authorities at
Washington ask is that you enforce discipline and punish the
disorderly. The power is in your hands ; use it, and you will
be sustained by all above you. Instead of relieving you, I wish
you, as soon as your new army is in the field, to assume the
immediate command and lead it on to new victories.
To this Grant made grateful answer. He had no means
of knowing from what source this change came.
After your letter inclosing copy of anonymous letter upon
which severe censure was based, I felt as though it would be
impossible for me to serve longer without a court of inquiry.
[He did not know that Lincoln had ordered an investigation.]
Your telegram of yesterday, however, places such a different
phase upon my position that I will again assume command, and
give every effort to the success of our cause. Under the worst
circumstances I would do the same.
P. S. Since the writing of above yours of the 9th instant is
received. I certainly received but one telegraphic despatch, up
to the 28th of February, to furnish reports of my strength.
This ended, for the time, Halleck's attempt to degrade
and subordinate Grant.
Grant at once took passage up the river to join his army,
and made his headquarters at a little hamlet called Savan
nah, a few miles below the place where the army had been
disposed by General C. F. Smith. Pittsburg Landing
was merely the terminus of a road at a wharf at which
steamers could land. The road, an ordinary dirt road,
came down a ravine to a couple of log huts. The army
was debarked on the southwest side of the river at this
point because of its nearness to Corinth, where the Con
federate forces were again assembling.
Grant had such loyal regard for General Smith's ability
that he made no change in the disposition of the forces,
200 LIFE OF GRANT
although he might not have chosen this spot for debarka
tion. It was, in fact, a fairly strong position. There was
a deep creek on either hand, and the river at the back
made attack possible only from the front. Sherman was
in advance. Delay was dangerous, and Grant's desire
was to advance; but he was under Halleck's absolute
command, and by his orders he lay waiting at Pittsburg
Landing for the coming of Buell's army from Kentucky,
while Albert Sidney Johnston, a brilliant and powerful
Southern leader, hurried his ranks together, and pushed
forward to crush the Union army before Buell's troops
could arrive. It was a bold and soldierly movement, and
was not expected by the people of the North ; yet every
indication of a great battle was in the reports between
Grant, Halleck, and Sherman. Halleck had ordered
Buell, who commanded the Army of the Ohio, to join
Grant ; the latter was on the road, and his advance-guard
was expected at any hour.
o
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH CHURCH
N the 5th of April Grant wrote from Savannah to
Buell :
Your despatch received. I will be here to meet you to
morrow.
And from Pittsburg Landing Sherman wrote :
All is quiet along my lines now. We are in the act of
exchanging cavalry, according to your order. The enemy has
cavalry on our front, and I think there are two regiments of
infantry and one battery of artillery about two miles out.
A little later Sherman sends another word :
Your note just received. I have no doubt nothing will occur
to-day more than some picket-firing. The enemy is saucy, but
got the worst of it yesterday, and will not press our pickets far.
I will not be drawn out far unless with certainty of advantage,
and I do not apprehend anything like an attack on our position.
With these words of Sherman to ease his mind Grant
remained undisturbed at his headquarters at Savannah
on the night of the 5th. Sherman was an older man, a
keen and experienced soldier, and could be trusted to
keep the advance-guard. His troops were raw, but his
own sagacity and alertness were unquestioned by his
chief; and yet at the time Sherman was writing those
assuring notes the entire Confederate army was encamped
but a short distance away, ready to attack in force.
201
202 LIFE OF GRANT
It was an ominous night, dark, foggy, and windless.
Grant was in great pain from a bruised ankle. His horse
(during a trip to the front on the evening of the 4th) had
slipped on a smooth log, and in falling had crushed the
general's ankle. His boot had to be cut from his foot, so-
enormously had the limb swollen, and he could not walk
without crutches.
He was early astir. It was Sunday morning in April,
and nature was tuned to nothing harsher than the caw of
the crow, the songs of the birds, and the ringing of church
bells. The sun rose warm but veiled in fog. But while
the general was at breakfast, through the soft, damp,
fragrant air came a faint, far-off, jarring sound.
" General," said Webster, his chief of staff, " that is the
noise of cannon."
" It sounds very much like it," said Grant, and went on
with his breakfast, though the sound thickened.
An orderly came in, and, saluting, said :
" General, there is terrific firing up the river."
By the time they had finished breakfast the earth
shook with the distant tumult of monstrous cannon. The
Sabbath-day slaughter had begun.
As the general listened, Webster asked: "Where is it?
Crump's Landing or Pittsburg?"
" That is what I am trying to determine. I think it is
Pittsburg. Orderly, take these horses to the boat, and
tell the captain to fire up at once. Come, gentlemen; it
is time to move."
He wrote a note to General Buell :
Heavy firing is heard up the river, indicating plainly that an
attack has been made upon our most advanced positions. I have
been looking for this, but did not believe the attack could be
made before Monday or Tuesday. This necessitates my joining
the forces up the river instead of meeting you to-day, as I had
contemplated. I have directed General Nelson to move to the
river with his division. He can march to opposite Pittsburg.
He hobbled painfully to the boat, and started up the
river, accompanied by his staff.
He betrayed little excitement, though the deepening
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH CHURCH 203
roar of the cannon seemed to portend the downfall of the
republic ; but on his face settled that strange look which
he had worn at Donelson — a relentless sternness which
was resolution, not savagery. He held his cigar in his
hand, and occasionally put it ,between his teeth, but it
remained unlighted. His calmness was not inertness; it
was the immobility of perfect self-control. His staff had
come to know these moods and to respect his silence.
At Crump's Landing, about half-way up the river to
Pittsburg Landing, General Lew Wallace was stationed.
To him Grant said: "General, have your men ready to
march at a moment's notice."
" They are all under arms," replied Wallace.
The roar and jar and tumult thickened, but the general
gave no further sign of excitement till the boat neared
the landing; then, leaning on his chief of staff, he hobbled
to the side of his horse. As he swung into the saddle
he seemed to forget his pain. The moment the gang
plank fell he was ashore. Spurring his horse till he leaped
like a hound, he dashed away. His eagerness had found
expression. He led his staff at reckless speed straight
toward the heaviest firing. It was about nine o'clock in
the morning when he " came sailing in on his old clay-
bank." The debarkation of the army had not been his;
the delay had not been his : but now that the battle was
on, he accepted the issue, and he was the commander;
there was no question of that in the mind of any com
petent observer that terrible day. The enemy had fallen
upon Sherman's advance-line, and had driven him back
toward the river; the defensive line still remained, but
was very much shortened.
He rode at once to Sherman's lines. He found Sherman
wounded, but calm and alert.
" How is it with you ? " asked Grant.
" We 've about held our own," replied Sherman, " but
it has been a heavy attack."
" Things don't look so well on our left. I have left
orders at Crump's Landing for Wallace's division to come
up on your right. Look out for him."
All day he rode the lines, exposing himself with crimi-
204 LIFE OF GRANT
nal recklessness to the fire, encouraging his subordinates
by promise of reinforcements, reforming stragglers, for
warding ammunition, giving helpful advice and definite
orders. Something great and admirable came out in his
character. His coolness, his alertness, his perfect clarity
of vision under the appalling strain of anxiety, evidenced
the great commander of men. Had he been a lesser man,
or a man of nervous organization, he would have broken
down under the responsibility.
The battle was horrifying. Charge after charge was
made and repulsed. Some of the ground was taken and
retaken several times. The army was new and untried,
and its commanders were scarcely less inexperienced.
Lines were broken up ; organization in the newer regi
ments disappeared ; but they fought on without barri
cades, men and officers alike performing desperate deeds
of valor.
At two o'clock Grant's face showed anxiety for the first
time. The army was almost a confusion of brave mobs,
difficult to command. Buell had not arrived; Wallace
was wandering about on the road somewhere ; and many
of the raw troops of Sherman's advance-guard, having
fled back to the river, cowered under the bank like fright
ened rabbits. The unutterable fury of the conflict had
made of them, not cowards, but awed and helpless
animals. They had gone beyond command. The gray-
coated men came in impulses, as though driven by some
incomprehensible enginery of hate. They were confident
of victory, and really outnumbered the Union troops.
But they could not advance. They were checked, and
slowly fell back.
At last Wallace arrived, but too late in the day to take
any part in the battle. Buell's men did not reach the
field until the end of the first day's terrible fighting.
Buell himself landed in advance of his men, and seeing
the great body of discouraged stragglers by the river,
asked Grant what preparations he had made for defeat.
Grant simply said : " I have n't despaired of whipping
them yet."
As night came on, the Union line, crushed back close
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH CHURCH 205
to the river, lay down in the rain and waited for the
dawn. Grant, though suffering great pain from his swollen
ankle, and worn with his day's activity, set himself to the
problem of capturing the army which he already con
sidered whipped. This wonderful characteristic came out
in him : he seemed just beginning to fight. The troops
slept on their arms beneath the tempest, but the labor of
reforming the commands and posting the newly arrived
forces of Wallace and Buell continued all night. " Grant
visited each division commander, including Nelson, after
dark, directing the new position of each, and repeating
in person the orders for an advance at early dawn. ' At
tack with a heavy skirmish-line as soon as it 's light
enough to see ; then follow up with your entire command,
leaving no reserves.' '
About midnight he returned to the landing, and lay
down on the ground with his head against a tree; and
though drenched by the storm and suffering great physical
pain, he did not lose heart; he confidently looked for
victory in the morning. Toward dawn, becoming chilled,
he moved to the porch of one of the log huts, and tried
to rest there ; but the house was filled with wounded men,
and their moans and cries of anguish, more unendurable
than the storm, drove him back to the shelter of his tree.
It was a long, long night; but daylight came at last.
He was again lifted into his saddle, and though lame,
worn, covered with mud, and burdened with the mightiest
responsibilities, his voice was calm, clear, and decisive.
Riding along the line, he said to his aide : " See that
every division moves up to the attack ; press the enemy
hard the minute it is light enough to see." Conditions
had changed ; he was now the aggressor. Buell and Wal
lace had given the Union forces preponderance; the
stragglers reformed, and all moved with the confidence
which reinforcements gave. They were anxious to redeem
themselves. The Confederates withstood the attack with
marvelous skill and bravery ; though now outnumbered
and fighting a losing battle, they withdrew in good order;
nothing could stampede them.
At last, late in the afternoon on Monday, the enemy's
206 LIFE OF GRANT
guns on the left became silent, but on the right the battle
still continued in intermittent ferocity. Moments of com
parative silence began to intervene like lulls in a gale,
followed by volley after volley of musketry, rapid as the
roll of a drum, till the guns grew hot and the gunners
weary. Each returning wave of sullen savagery seemed
weaker, and the firing became fainter and fainter and then
almost died away.
The commander sat on his clay-colored war-horse,
surrounded by his staff, looking intently in the direction
of the firing. As the musketry began this intermittent
action his face lighted up. The enemy was preparing to
retreat! This was the moment for a final charge. He
looked about him for a weapon to hurl into the retreating
ranks of the enemy. Gathering up two or three fragments
of regiments, he led them against the enemy's last stand.
The line broke ; the gray-coated men fled. Shrill cheers
arose. The battle was ended. The field of Shiloh had
taken its place in history as one of the great battle-fields
of the human race.
The battle of Shiloh showed Ulysses Grant to be a
commander of a new type. His personal habits in conflict
were now apparent to all his staff. He did not shout,
vituperate, or rush aimlessly to and fro. He had no vin-
dictiveness. While other officers in the heat of battle
swore and uttered ferocious cries, Grant voiced all his
commands in plain Anglo-Saxon speech, without oaths
or abridgment. His anxiety and intensity of mental action
never passed beyond his perfect control. He fought best
and thought best when pushed hard.
He went into the battle of Shiloh under the most
annoying, uncertain, and depressing circumstances without
losing his temper and without once becoming confused or
vindictive. His endurance was marvelous. Neither noise
nor confusion of line, neither rush of stampeding troops,
nor feebleness of dilatory commanders, nor physical pain,
could weaken or affright him. He displayed the high
courage which assumes responsibility, and the mind which
executes plans in the face of apparent defeat.
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH CHURCH 2O/
A man of singular gentleness, he had displayed the
faculty which enables a man to consider soldiers en masse,
to look over and beyond the destruction of human life in
battle to the end for which the battle is fought. Unwill
ing to harm any living thing himself, he had the resolution
to send columns of men into battle calmly and without
hesitation. Without this constitution of mind no great
commander can succeed.
CHAPTER XXIX
FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND
THE battle of Shiloh was a great victory, but it did
not ring over the North with the same joyous clamor
which followed upon Donelson. The holiday element had
passed out of the war. Optimists had said, " Donelson
ends it in the West " ; and yet another battle had followed,
so much greater, so much more horrible in the destruction
of human life, that Donelson, in its turn, became a small
affair, and even the most hopeful saw other carnage in
prospect.
There was an end of talk about the " boastful Southron."
It was apparent that he could fight under leadership such
as he had in Albert Sidney Johnston. The two sections
had met in forces beyond anything ever seen in the
Revolutionary War, or in the wars of 1812 and with
Mexico. The desolation of homes was terrible. Long
columns of the dead filled the newspapers, and long trains
wound and jolted their slow way to the North and to the
South, carrying the wounded to their homes.
The nation was appalled, and naturally a large part of
the bitterness and hate of war fell upon Grant. He had
risen so suddenly to national fame that his private life and
character were dark with mystery. Few knew how kind
and gentle he really was, and a tumult of abuse arose.
He was execrated as a man careless of human lives. He
was accused of negligence and drunkenness, and of being
unjustifiably off the field of battle. McClernand wrote
to the President, claiming the honors, and reflecting on
208
FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND 2OQ
other commanders; General Buell, stung by charges of
being " designedly slow," retorted with insinuations of
Grant's inefficiency, and drew dolorous pictures of the
Union army, which he had saved from flight ; and finally
Halleck, taking from a telegram Grant's warm and gener
ous praise of Sherman, embodied it in a message to Secre
tary of War Stanton (not mentioning Grant's name), asking
for Sherman's promotion, which had the effect of hinting
at Grant's demoralization and failure.
To this Stanton replied :
The President desires to know why you have made no official
report, and whether any neglect or misconduct of General Grant
or any other officer contributed to the sad casualties that befell
our forces on Sunday.
Again Halleck evaded the issue by not mentioning
Grant, though the question called for it, saying:
The casualties were due in part to the bad conduct of officers
utterly unfit for their places, and in part to the numbers and
bravery of the enemy. I prefer to express no opinion in regard
to the misconduct of individuals till I receive reports of com
manders of divisions.
Great pressure was at once brought to bear on the
President to have Grant relieved from duty. Lincoln
listened patiently to all that men had to say, pro and con ;
then, with a long sigh, he said : " I can't spare Grant ; he
fights! "
To Colonel J. S. Stewart Colonel S. D. Webster of
Grant's staff wrote, September 4, 1872, to deny a slander:
I breakfasted with General Grant. I went on board the boat,
and rode with him to the field about half -past eight in the morn
ing. I was with him all day. 1 lay down with him on a small
parcel of hay which the quartermaster put down to keep us out
of the mud, in the rear of the artillery-line to the left. He was
perfectly sober and self-possessed during the day and the entire
battle. No one claimed that he was drunk.
S. D. WEBSTER.
210 LIFE OF GRANT
The battle of Shiloh may be said, therefore, to have
divided the country into two distinct camps — those who
considered General Grant no soldier, and those who con
sidered him the great warrior of the West. The poor
farmer of the Gravois had become an issue. Stocks in
London rose and cotton went down with his day's doings;
and this immense achievement was the result of nine
months' service in the field.
But Halleck, " cautiously energetic one," determined
to take the field in person. One week after the battle he
arrived, holding carte blanche from the Secretary of War.
He congratulated Generals Grant and Buell, and their
armies, and left them in their respective commands, and
called for reinforcements. They came, — the North was just
beginning to understand the necessities of the case, —
and on the 22d Commander Halleck unrolled his great
army. It was a mighty host, and the whole nation waited
to see what would happen. Never had an American
soldier such a chance. Mightiest results were looked for.
Nothing happened! He lay there with his splendid
army, fearing attack. There was not a formidably forti
fied city in the whole West, and all the forces opposed
could not have exceeded sixty thousand bayonets, while
Halleck was master of nearly one hundred and twenty
thousand resolute Western soldiers, men enough to march
to the Gulf, taking all before them. The Confederates
looked on in wonder at this superb army inching along
behind breastworks. Halleck's orders to his subordinates
were to "avoid any general engagement" until reinforce
ments should arrive, though his advance column was
finding but feeble resistance, and reported several times
the belief that the enemy was evacuating Corinth. " The
movement was a siege from start to close."
Meanwhile General Grant was little more than a spectator.
Though nominally second in command, he had in reality
almost no command at all. He was forced to trail after
Halleck in the most humiliating of positions. Every
suggestion he made to his chief was treated with con
tempt. The staff- officers, taking their cue from Halleck,
turned their backs when Grant came near, Orders to his
FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND 211
troops were sent over his head, and movements were
ordered in his department without consulting him or even
notifying him. These things became unendurable at last,
and in a letter stating his position he asked to be relieved
from duty altogether, or to have his command defined.
To this Halleck replied in diplomatic and soothing
words, saying:
You have precisely the position to which your rank entitles
you. You certainly will not suspect me of any intention to injure
your feelings or do you any injustice ; if so, you will eventually
change your mind on the subject. For the last three months I
have done everything in my power to ward off the attacks which
were made upon you. If you believe me your friend, you will
not require explanations ; if not, explanations on my part would
be of little avail.
On its face this letter seems fair, and yet under its
smooth phrases lies the fact that Grant was subjected to
daily humiliations. The victor of Donelson and Shiloh was
second in command to a chief who contemptuously cut
short all his suggestions, who ordered his troops from his
corps without notifying him, and this not in an emergency,
but contemptuously, as in the case of detaching General
Lew Wallace for movement toward Bolivar.
At about this time Sherman, who deeply sympathized
with Grant, was told casually by Halleck that Grant
was going away. He immediately ordered a horse and
rode over to Grant's headquarters.
As he came near he was amazed to see the tents struck,
and men at work packing up. Grant was sitting on a log
near by, smoking, as usual.
"What the devil 's the meaning of all this?" asked
Sherman, in his abrupt way.
Grant smiled joyously. " I 'm going to leave."
"What! " Sherman fairly shouted.
" Yes ; I have leave to go to Washington, and I 'm
going."
" Good God Almighty ! Grant, are you crazy ? You
can't leave this Western army ; it 's yours. You know
the men, and the men know you. D it, man," cried
212 LIFE OF GRANT
the rough old fellow, lifting his fist, "don't you know
when you are well off?"
Grant was deeply impressed with Sherman's earnest
ness, but significantly replied :
"You know my position here under Halleck?"
" I know all about that. But you stay right here. Hal
leck is going East pretty soon, and then things will
straighten out here."
Grant mused a moment, and then ordered : " Put up the
tents again ; I '11 stay."
It is hardly more than twenty miles from Pittsburg
Landing to Corinth. It took Halleck six weeks to come
within striking distance of the enemy's outworks. Grant
was driven nearly to desperation by the snail's pace of the
splendid army which should have been his, and which he
felt able to lead.
" I may be wrong," he said to his staff, " but I believe
in an aggressive campaign. If I were in command I
would push on and win."
For six weeks, in hesitating timidity, General Halleck
held his immense host in check before a retreating foe.
When the truth could be no longer concealed, he ordered
an advance on Corinth, and found an empty city! The
whole army smiled. " Old Brains " had been outfaced
by wooden guns. Halleck concealed his stupefaction and
chagrin by a brave show of orders and telegrams, but the
truth could not be suppressed. The soldiers knew he had
been fooled, and they did not hesitate to put their opinions
in their home letters.
On the loth of June he restored Grant, Buell, and Pope
to their separate commands. Grant, seizing the oppor
tunity to e-cape from his irksome position, asked to be
allowed to make his headquarters in Memphis, which had
fallen into Union hands upon the evacuation of Corinth.
Halleck consented, and in such wise Grant " went into
honorable retirement." He still continued to play second
fiddle to Halleck, but was free from daily humiliation at
the hands of headquarters supernumeraries. The people
of Memphis recall his stay there with expressions of good
FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND 213
will. He ruled wisely and well, and in the midst of
cotton speculators and measureless corruption he re
mained poor.
The shift which Sherman predicted took place. Lin
coln, sorely disappointed with operations in the East,
looked toward Halleck. Lee had forced McClellan back
to the James River. There was a feeling of great inse
curity at Washington, and on the loth of July Halleck
received an order to proceed to the capital. Thereupon
he telegraphed Grant at Memphis : " You will immedi
ately repair to this place and report to these head
quarters."
Grant asked if he should bring his staff.
Halleck curtly replied, " You can do as you please, but
Corinth will be your headquarters," and made no other
explanation.
On the 1 2th he wired Stanton: "In leaving this de
partment, shall I relinquish the command to next in
rank, or will the President designate who is to be the
commander?"
All this was quite open and candid, but he secretly
offered the command of the department to Colonel Robert
Allen, his quartermaster.
Colonel Allen was properly astonished, and declined,
saying, " I have not rank."
Halleck replied: "That can easily be obtained."
Colonel Allen, with fine common sense, again declined
to consider the matter, saying he doubted the expediency
of such a step. " Identified as I am with enormous
expenditures of my department, it is impracticable to
relieve me at this time."
No doubt Grant would have served willingly under
Allen, for he held him in high regard, and kept in memory
his kindness to him when he was in want in San Francisco
in 1854; but the Secretary of War ordered Halleck to
turn the command over to the next in rank, and that
ended the matter so far as Halleck was concerned.
Grant was once more in command of his department,
but under discouraging conditions. Buell's army had
214 LIFE OF GRANT
returned to Kentucky, and his own forces were heavily
depleted. His name was no longer in men's mouths.
All eyes were turned upon Buell's army, and upon Hal-
leek and the Army of the Potomac. Grant was simply
another general who had gone up like a rocket and had
fallen a charred stick. He might be a useful man ; he
might do garrison duty ; but he was no longer the man
expected, the great commander. During July and August
he could do nothing more than guard his lines. He held
his command but insecurely, and felt that he might be
removed at any moment. He was ordered to be in readi
ness to reinforce Buell, and had no freedom of action,
though exposed at any time to an attack on his weakened
lines.
This was a gloomy and anxious time, and the general's
old habit threatened to seize upon him again. His ner
vous organization was such that inactivity and depression
of spirits weakened him to the power of alcoholic stimu
lants. But his loyal wife came down and helped him bear
his disappointment. Through weeks of weary waiting he
endured in silence, watching Generals Price and Van Dorn,
knowing well he had but inadequate movable force to send
against an enemy. But when the enemy attacked in
September, he fought skilfully, and won the battle of luka.
A little later, seeing the Union army weakened still further
by the transfer of General Thomas to Buell's command,
General Van Dorn assaulted Corinth. Grant's head
quarters were at Jackson, Tennessee, at this time, but he
directed the battle, which was a marked and decisive
defeat of the Confederates.
Again, at the first opportunity, he had cheered the
nation with victories. Patriots began to recall that Grant
was the victor of Donelson and Shiloh.
The Mississippi campaign began once more to seem
important, and Halleck formally assigned to Grant the
command of the department which he had been holding
thus far by sufferance. Encouraged by this, Grant sug
gested a forward movement. With Sherman command
ing his right wing, C. S. Hamilton (an old classmate) his
center, and young James B. McPherson his left, he began
FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND 215
to push down the Mississippi Central Railway upon
Oxford and Grenada, with design to meet and destroy
the rebel army before it could retire into Vicksburg.
He was encouraged, but by no means at ease. In a
letter to his sister, written early in December from Oxford,
he said :
I have a big army in front of me [General Pemberton was in
command], as well as bad roads. I shall probably give a good
account of myself, notwithstanding all obstacles. My plans are
all complete for weeks to come, and I hope to have them all
work out just as planned. For a conscientious person, and I
profess to be one, this is a most slavish life. I am envied by
ambitious persons; but I, in turn, envy the person who can
transact hh daily business and retire to a quiet home without
the feeling of responsibility for the morrow. Taking my whole
department, there are an immense number of lives staked upon
my judgment and acts. I am extended now like a peninsula into
an enemy's country, with a large army depending for their daily
bread upon keeping open a line of railroad running 190 miles
through an enemy's country -, or, at least, through a territory occu
pied by a people terribly embittered and hostile to us. With
all this, I suffer the mortification of seeing myself attacked right
and left by people at home professing patriotism and love of
country who never heard the whistle of a hostile bullet. I pity
them and the nation dependent on such for its existence. I am
thankful, however, that, though such people make a great noise,
the masses are not like them.
Among many other causes of worriment, he had General
McClernand, who reappeared on the horizon at this time.
He had secured a leave of absence, and had visited Presi
dent Lincoln, appealing for permission to organize an
independent command to proceed upon Vicksburg by
way of the river. He had been restive under Grant's
command from the beginning, and considered himself the
man best entitled to command the Army of the Missis
sippi. He had ignored General Grant in every possible
way, making reports to the War Department and to
Lincoln. After the battle of Shiloh he began to plan
for a special command. Through his influence with Lin-
216 LIFE OF GRANT
coin, he had finally obtained a very curious " confidential "
order, which read thus :
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY,
October 21, 1862.
Ordered that Major-General McClernand be, and he is,
directed to proceed to the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa,
to organize the troops remaining in those States, and to be raised
by voluntary or by draft, and forward them with all despatch to
Memphis or Cairo or such other points as may hereafter be
designated by the general-in-chief, to the end that, when a
sufficient force not required by the operations of General Grant's
command shall be raised, an expedition may be organized, under
General McClernand's command, against Vicksburg, and to
clear the Mississippi River and open navigation to New Orleans.
The forces so organized will remain subject to the designation
of the general-in-chief, and be employed according to such
exigencies as the service, in his judgment, may require.
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
With this order (which he could not have closely read)
McClernand went forth in exultation to raise an army for
himself. As he understood it, this gave him a position
equal, if not superior, to Grant, and he saw Napoleonic
glory awaiting his destruction of Vicksburg. He was a
splendid recruiting officer; that should be cheerfully ad
mitted. He was in his element when making patriotic
appeals for volunteers, and, to his high honor be it said,
he raised an army of forty thousand men in an incredibly
short time, and by the 1st of December was prepared to
follow them and move upon Vicksburg.
Grant distrusted McClernand, and probably disliked
him, though he had never given the other any per
sonal cause of offense. Hearing of McClernand's pro
jected movement (through a letter from Admiral Porter),
Grant set out for Cairo to see Porter. He arrived just as
the admiral was about to join in a banquet on the quarter
master's boat. No one recognized the general at first.
He was dressed in citizen's clothes, and was travel-worn
and grim of face.
FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND 217
He was hungry and tired, but refused a seat at the
table. He called Porter aside, and asked abruptly :
"What is all this about McClernand?"
Porter explained that he had seen Lincoln in Washing
ton, and that Lincoln had said to him : " I have a greater
general now than either Grant or Sherman. I have com
missioned McClernand to raise an army and capture Vicks-
burg by way of the Mississippi."
Grant listened in perfect silence till he had the whole
story ; then he asked with imperative suddenness : " When
can you move, and what force have you ? "
The admiral named the strength of his flotilla, and said :
" I can move to-morrow."
" Very well," said the general; " I will leave you now,
and write at once to Sherman to have thirty thousand
infantry and artillery embarked in transports, ready to
start for Vicksburg the moment you get to Memphis. I
will return to Holly Springs to-night, and will start with
a large force for Grenada as soon as I can get off. General
Joe Johnston is near Vicksburg with forty thousand men,
besides the garrison of the place under General Pember-
ton. When Johnston hears I am marching on Grenada,
he will come from Vicksburg to meet me and check my
advance. I will hold him at Grenada while you and
Sherman push down the Mississippi and make a landing
somewhere near the Yazoo. The garrison at Vicksburg
will be small, and Sherman will have no difficulty in get
ting inside the works. When that is done, I will force
Johnston out of Grenada, and, as he falls back from Vicks
burg, will follow him up with a superior force."
Thus in less than half an hour Grant unfolded his plan
of campaign involving the transportation of more than one
hundred thousand men. He refused to eat or drink or
sleep, but started immediately upon his return.
All this has deep significance. Grant's department itt
this time extended only to the eastern bank of the MissLi •
sippi River. He had no command in Arkansas, while
Vicksburg, the objective point, was in his department. In
his mind, McClernand was not the proper man to lead an
independent command in his department. It was neces-
2l8 LIFE OF GRANT
sary, also, to save Sherman from subordination to a polit
ical general, and it was Grant's intention to move on
Vicksburg in such wise that Sherman should have the
honor of its capture before McClernand arrived.
As a matter of fact, the " confidential order " did not
give an independent command. Its phrases were adroit.
As the troops began to assemble at Memphis they were
sent to Grant and to Sherman, without regard to orders
from McClernand ; and when he complained of this, Stan-
ton informed him that the operations of his forces, being
in General Grant's department, were under the general
direction of that officer.
Grant returned at once to headquarters, and made prep
arations to carry out his part of the plan of an assault on
Vicksburg. On the i8th of December he received impor
tant orders from Washington, and was ready to move.
He was seated at headquarters, next day, when Colonel
Dickey, an officer of the cavalry, rode up and reported.
He had been sent out with express orders to watch a
threatening force under command of General Van Dorn,
and to never leave the Confederate flank for a single hour.
He arrived covered with mud, and as soon as the general
set eyes on him he knew something was wrong.
He rose abruptly, and without a word of greeting
brusquely asked: "Where is Van Dorn?"
Dickey replied : " I left him at Pontotoc. He was
moving northward with a strong force. The negroes
said—"
Grant wheeled on his heel, sat down at his desk, and
began writing orders with great swiftness, addressed to
all his post commanders, bidding them be in readiness
for attack, to call in all troops, and to make every effort to
strengthen their posts. He was profoundly alarmed. He
knew Van Dorn meant to strike some of his garrisons,
and was especially uneasy about Holly Springs, which
was his secondary base of supplies. Colonel Murphy
was in command at Holly Springs, and the general dis
trusted him.
Colonel Murphy received the general's orders, but de
layed putting them into effect that afternoon ; and that
FROM SHILOH TO MILLIKEN'S BEND 219
night the garrison at Holly Springs was captured and a
million dollars' worth of stores destroyed. All commu
nications were cut, and Grant's army was for several
days isolated in the enemy's country, and was forced to
live off of the products of the land. For all these con
siderations Grant was forced to fall back to Holly Springs
without being able to carry out his plan of cooperation
with Sherman.
This was his first retreat, and he felt deeply grieved and
humiliated thereat He had a peculiar superstition about
retracing his steps, and to be forced out of position by a
smaller force was a peculiar mortification. At that time
he had no realization of the ease with which an army of
thirty thousand men could subsist in an enemy's country,
and it seemed impossible for him to follow out his original
plan. These two weeks of foraging taught him a needed
lesson. He was astonished at the ease with which the
army fed itself.
Meanwhile Sherman, not knowing what had happened
to his chief, had debarked at Chickasaw Bayou, just above
Vicksburg, according to plan. After listening anxiously
for the sound of Grant's cannon to the east, he determined
to assault ; and on the twenty-ninth day of December he
made a desperate attempt to carry Chickasaw Bluffs. He
failed, for the reason that Grant's retreat had enabled
Pemberton to withdraw his forces from the railway and
with them reinforce the troops at Chickasaw Bluffs. Sher
man's men charged again and again, but fell back at last,
with great loss of life.
McClernand, in the North, hearing of Sherman's expedi
tion, cried out in hurried telegrams to Lincoln, saying, " I
believe I am being superseded," and pushed rapidly for
the front. He arrived at Sherman's headquarters the
day after the assault on Chickasaw Bluffs, and at once
took command, thus adding to Sherman's chagrin and
humiliation.
At about this time General McPherson wrote to Grant,
advising him to take command of the river expedition in
person. " It is the great feature of the campaign," wrote
the loyal young officer, " and its execution rightfully be-
220 LIFE OF GRANT
longs to you." And Halleck, seeing that it was a matter
of choice between a regular and a " mustang," set General
Grant free of all fear of McClernand's interference by an
order : " You are hereby authorized to relieve General
McClernand from command of the expedition against
Vicksburg, giving it to the next in rank, or taking it
yourself."
Grant, distrusting McClernand, and wishing to save
Sherman from further humiliation, and being influenced
also by the letter of young General McPherson, replied :
" I will take command in person."
CHAPTER XXX
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG
BUT all these discussions and harassments had wasted
the golden moments. From Donelson the army
should have marched at once on Corinth and on down
the valley upon Vicksburg before it could be reinforced
or fortified. Halleck's delay before Shiloh, his six weeks'
siege of the flags and wooden guns of Corinth, his long
wait after its capture, the dispersion of the great army,
his own recall to Washington, the smallness of Grant's
command, the controversy with McClernand — all these
things had held affairs in check, and had given the South
ern leaders time to recover, and to reinforce and fortify
Vicksburg, which was plainly the next great battle-point;
and now a winter of enormous rains was upon the land,
the troops were mainly raw and the army unorganized,
and it was late in January before Grant was able to put
himself personally upon the spot to see what could be
done.
With his arrival began one of the most extraordinary
beleaguerments in the history of warfare. There were
two roads to Vicksburg, one by way of the railway, the
other by way of the river. The river had been Grant's
choice, but circumstances had forced a trial of the inland
route. He had long perceived, as every thinking soldier
had, that Vicksburg was the gate which shut the Missis
sippi. It was of enormous importance to the Confederacy.
After Columbus and Memphis, it occupied the only
point of high land close to the river-bank for hundreds of
miles. At or near the city of Vicksburg, and extending
221
222 LIFE OF GRANT
some miles to the south, a line of low hills of glacial drift
jutted upon the river, making the site a natural fortress.
Upon these heights heavy batteries were planted.
Another element of great strength was in the river, which
in those days made a big graceful curve, in shape like an
ox-bow, so that to run the batteries the Northern gun
boats must pass twice within range, once on the outer
curve, and again, at closer gunshot, on the inner bow. A
third and final and more formidable condition than all
aided to make the siege of the city hopeless. There was
a prodigious freshet upon the land, and all the low-lying
country, through which the river flows (at high water) as
in a mighty aqueduct above the level of the farms, was
flooded, and Grant's soldiers had no place to pitch their
tents, save upon the narrow levees along the river's edge.
No greater problem of warfare ever faced an American
soldier.
Grant did not underestimate its difficulty. There were
but two ways to attack — from the north, with the Yazoo
River as base of action, or to get below the city and attack
from the south. He sent an expedition at once to explore
a passage to the Yazoo through the bayous of the eastern
bank, and set himself to consider the problem of getting
below by way of the west.
The difficulties in way of this plan were at the moment
insurmountable. He could neither march his men down
the western bank nor go in boats. If he should find pas
sage for the army, and should reach a safe point below
Vicksburg, he would still be on the western shore, and
without means to ferry his troops, and without supplies ;
and to every suggestion about running the batteries with
transports arose the picture of those miles of cannon hurl
ing their shells upon the frail woodwork of the unprotected
vessels.
He set about to find a way through the bayous to the
west, and prodigious things were done in the way of cut
ting channels through the swamps and widening streams for
the passage of gunboats. While this was going on he gave
attention to a canal which he had found partly excavated
upon his arrival. It had been planned by General Thomas
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG 223
Williams, in the summer of 1862, and crossed the narrow
neck of land just out of range of the cannon. It was ex
pected to start a cut-off, which would soon deepen natu
rally into a broad stream through which the boats might
pass. Grant, in a letter of the time, said : " I consider it
of little practical use, if completed " ; but he allowed the
work to go on, thinking it better for the soldiers to be
occupied. He had almost as little faith in the bayou route
to the west. In reality he had settled upon the plan of
inarching his men overland as soon as the water subsided,
and afterward to run the batteries with gunboats and
transports. These weeks of waiting tested his marvelous
patience sorely.
He was on trial again. The North, in its anxiety and
peril, was fickle. As the weeks went by it began again
to grumble, and finally to cry out. The mutter of criti
cism swelled to a roar as February and March went by.
The soldiers were said to be dying like sheep in the
trenches or useless canals. The cost of keeping such an
army idle was constantly harped upon, and immense pres
sure was again brought to bear upon Lincoln to remove
Grant from command. Disappointed tradesmen, jealous
officers, copperheads, and non-combatants alike joined
in the howl against him. McClernand wrote an impas
sioned letter to Governor Yates, asking him to join with
the governors of Iowa and Indiana in demanding a com
petent commander — himself, for example.
Many of Grant's friends deserted him and added their
voices to the clamor of criticism. Those who had shouted
largest professions after Donelson and Shiloh now has
tened to apologize, like Peter, declaring they had never
lifted up their caps for him.
In an interview, Lincoln said : " Even Washburne has
deserted Grant." And at last Lincoln himself became
so doubtful of Grant's character and ability that he con
sented to allow the Secretary of War to send Charles A.
Dana (formerly a writer on the " Tribune," and a friend
of the Secretary of War) to the front, to report the condi
tion of the army, and to study the relations between Grant
and McClernand; and later General Lorenzo Thomas
224 LIFE OF GRANT
arrived at Commodore Porter's headquarters with an
order relieving Grant, if he should find it necessary.
Porter told General Thomas that if the news got out
the " boys " would tar and feather him, and for various
reasons the order never saw the light.
Halleck, however, stood manfully by Grant (as the
official records show), making no complaints ; to the con
trary, he wrote very stimulating letters.
The eyes and hopes of the whole country are now directed
to your army. In my opinion, the opening of the Mississippi
River will be more advantage to us than the capturing of forty
Richmonds. We shall omit nothing which we can do to assist
you.
Grant betrayed his anxiety, but he did not express
doubt or irritation. He knew he could do the work. He
never boasted, never asked favors, and never answered
charges. When he communicated with Lincoln or Stan-
ton, it was officially.
The attempt by way of the Yazoo was a complete
failure, and the passage to the west by way of Lake
Providence was also a failure, while the ceaseless rains
and floods still prevented any successful venture in the
way of crossing the land on the west side of the river.
The canal, too, was a failure — not because it started
wrong, — that is to say, in an eddy, — but because the river
was higher than the land, and the water spread out over
the low ground and had no cutting power. There was
nothing to do but wait for the waters to subside.
His plan was now mature. As soon as the roads
emerged from the water he intended to run the batteries
with gunboats and transports, marching his troops across
the land meanwhile to a point below Vicksburg, and there,
by means of the boats, transport a division across the river,
and storm Grand Gulf, the enemy's first outpost to the
south. Thence, after cooperating with Banks in the cap
ture of Port Hudson, it was his purpose to swing by a
mighty half-wheel to the rear of Vicksburg, cutting off
supplies from central Mississippi, and capturing General
Pemberton's army.
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG
He had all to gain and little to lose in this bold plan,
which he first mentioned to Porter and Sherman. Porter
agreed, and was ready to move; so, indeed, was McCler-
nand ; but the audacity of the campaign alarmed the other
officers. Sherman did not believe in it, and suggested
other plans. The boats would not live a minute under
the guns, he said; and when they were below, what then?
They would be cut off from supplies and reinforcements.
He finally sent a letter with a counter-suggestion to Grant,
asking him to read it carefully. Partly because of Sher
man's skepticism, and partly out of regard for McCler-
nand's superb work in raising recruits, Grant gave to
McClernand augmented command, and sent him in
advance by way of a levee which ran from Milliken's
Bend to Carthage. Mr. Dana uttered a protest against
this, and was supported in his objection by Admiral
Porter and by nearly all the officers of the army and navy,
for there seemed to be general lack of confidence in the
" political general." But Grant was firm in his desire to
allow McClernand as much of command as he safely could.
Porter states that at a meeting of the officers on board his
flag-ship, the night before his attempt to run the batteries,
all the officers argued against it. Grant listened for the
last time to all they had to say, then said : " I remain of
the same mind. Be prepared to move."
The running of the batteries took place on the i6th of
April, and was one of the most dramatic and splendid
actions of the war. The night was dark and perfectly
still when brave Admiral Porter, on his flag-ship Benton,
dropped soundlessly into the current. Each boat was
protected as well as possible by bales of cotton, and had
no lights except small guiding lamps astern. The other
boats were ordered to follow at intervals of twenty min
utes. Grant and his staff occupied a transport anchored
in the middle of the river as far down as it was safe
to go.
For a little time the silence of the beautiful night re
mained unbroken. The hush was painful in its foreboding
intensity. Along the four miles of battery-planted heights
there was no sound or light to indicate the wakefulness of
226 LIFE OF GRANT
the gunners; but they were awake! Suddenly a flame
broke from one of the lower batteries ; a watch-dog cannon
had sounded the warning. Then a rocket rose in the air
with a shriek. The alarm was taken up, and each grim
monster had his word ; and from end to end of the line of
hills, successive rosy flashes broke, and roar joined roar.
Flames leaped forth ; bonfires flared aloft to light the river
and betray the enemy to the gunners. Then the gun
boats awoke, and from their sullenly silent hulks answer
ing lightnings streamed upward, and the whole fleet
became visible to the awed army and to the terrified city.
The long-expected had happened : Grant was making his
final attempt on Vicksburg.
The sky above the city was red with the glare of flam
ing buildings on the hills, and burning boats and bales of
cotton on the river, and the thunder of guns was incessant.
It seemed as though every transport would be sunk be
neath the tempest of falling shot.
But the tumult died out at last. The gunboats swept
on out of reach. The flames on the land sank to smol
dering coals, the stillness and peace of an April night
again settled over the river, and the frogs began timidly
to trill once more in the marshes.
Porter's gunboats, almost uninjured, were now below
Vicksburg. Grant's mighty host of footmen was ready
to follow.
On the 2Oth of April, having been over the route in
person, Grant issued orders for his army to move. These
orders hinted of great things. " Troops will be required
to bivouac. One tent only will be allowed each company,
one wall-tent to each brigade headquarters, and one to
each division headquarters. As fast as the Thirteenth
Army-Corps advances the Seventeenth Army-Corps will
take its place, and it, in turn, will be followed in like
manner by the Fifteenth Army- Corps. Commanders are
authorized and empowered to collect all beef, cattle, corn,
and other necessary supplies in the line of march ; but
wanton destruction of property, taking of articles useless
for military purposes, insulting citizens, going into and
searching houses without proper orders from division com-
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG 22?
manders, are positively prohibited. All such irregularities
must be summarily punished."
And so, with cheers of elation, with renewed confidence
in the " old commander," the army began to stretch and
stream away in endless procession along the narrow and
slippery roads on the levee-top. McPherson's troops
followed, and Sherman kept the rear. The point of assault
was Grand Gulf, the enemy's outpost to the south of
Vicksburg. McClernand's corps moved first.
Grant himself took no personal baggage, not even a
valise, and the army soon found this out. The new men
did not need to be told that this was no parade soldier
who led them. He had no attendants, no imported deli
cacies, no special accommodations. He was spattered
with mud, grizzled of beard, and wherever he went the
" boys " felt a twinge of singular emotion. They had
admired him before ; they began to love him now, and
he became the " old man " to them. And yet, he was as
unostentatious of his camaraderie as he was of his com
mand. He was his simple self in all this. He meant
business, and spared himself not at all, and neglected no
detail.*
The attack on Grand Gulf failed, and Grant, ordering
Porter to run the batteries of Grand Gulf, moved on down
the river, and landed at a point called De Schroon's, just
above Bruinsburg, being led to do so by information from
a negro that a good road led inland to Port Gibson and
Jackson from that point. Meanwhile, to keep Pemberton
* " While I was standing by the pontoon-bridge, watching the boys cross
the bayou, I heard some one cheering, and, looking around, saw an officer on
horseback in a major-general's uniform. He dismounted and came over to
the spot where I was standing. I did not know his face, but something told
me it was Grant. He stood solid, erect, with square features, thin closed
lips, brown hair, brown beard, both cut short and neat. He weighed appa
rently about one hundred and fifty pounds. He looked larger than Napoleon,
and not so dumpy. He looked like a man in earnest. I heard him say r
' Men, push right along; close up fast, and hurry over.' Two or three men
mounted on mules attempted to wedge pass the soldiers on the bridge. Grant
noticed it, and quietly said: 'Lieutenant, send those men to the rear.'
There was no posturing for effect, no nonsense, no sentiment, no pointing to
the pyramids, no calling the centuries to witness ; only a plain business man,
filled with the single purpose of getting that command across the river in the
shortest time possible." — S. H. BYERS.
228 LIFE OF GRANT
occupied with things above, Sherman had been ordered to
make a great show of attack on Vicksburg itself, and then
suddenly to silence his guns and hasten to join the forces
below.
On the morning of the 3<Dth of April, McClernand's
troops and part of McPherson's command were landed on
the east bank of the river below "Vicksburg, and Grant's
spirits rose. " I felt a degree of relief scarcely ever
equaled since." And yet, one would say the outlook was
not reassuring. He was " in the enemy's country, with a
vast river and the stronghold of Vicksburg between him
and his base of supplies." He had two armies to fight,
one intrenched at Vicksburg, the other at Jackson, less
than four days' march to the east, with the whole of the
Confederacy back of it. But he was again on dry ground,
out of the terrible swamps and bayous of the flat country ;
so much was gained.
He hurried McClernand forward toward Port Gibson,
to prevent the destruction of an important bridge. Parts
of McPherson's command arrived, but still the invading
army was small, less than twenty thousand men, with no
pack-train, and with only two days' rations. On the
second day the enemy was met in force, but defeated.
Reinforcements kept arriving, and the chief was buoyant
of spirits, although for five days he had been on short
rations and had not removed his clothing to sleep. Grand
Gulf, being uncovered by the battle of Port Gibson, was
evacuated, and on May 3 Grant rode into the fortress,
finding Porter before it with his fleet of gunboats.
Grant now heard from General Banks, who was in
command on the Lower Mississippi, and could not assist ;
and abandoning all idea of cooperation with him, he cut
loose from Grand Gulf and the river, and moved into the
interior, determined to get between Vicksburg and its
supplies, and to isolate it from the Confederacy. " I shall
communicate with Grand Gulf no more," he wrote to
Halleck, " except as it becomes necessary to send a train
with heavy escort. You may not hear from me for several
days."
Again, as at Donelson, he put himself out of reach of
U. S. Grant, age 41 years.
Taken in 1863, before Vicksburg. From a defective negative.
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG 229
the department's meddling. He assumed all responsibility
for this tremendous venture. To fail would make him the
most bitterly execrated man in the nation ; to win would
open the Mississippi and give the whole Southwest to the
Union. Others blustered, projected, doubted, grew vain
glorious. Grant took upon himself this enormous respon
sibility without change of manner. He rode among his
legions, as simple in manner as any private soldier. " The
expression of his face was stern and care-worn, but deter
mined," says one who saw him.
He rode a borrowed horse. He had no camp-chest, no
change of clothing, and no tent. Here his splendid consti
tution stood him in good stead. His plain and rigorous boy
hood, his training at West Point, his roughing it in Mexico
and on the coast, his farm life, all enabled him to endure
hardship which would have broken down many young men,
to say nothing of the enormous strain of responsibility and
direction. He could wrap himself in a blanket and sleep
beneath a tree, or, if it rained, he could bow his head to the
pelting drops, ~nd sit as patiently as an Indian, waiting
for daylight. As for meals, he took them when and where
he found them. Such a commander could not fail to in
spire the deepest feelings of respect and confidence in his
men, although he was " plain as an old stove." It was hard
for new troops to believe that the low- voiced man in the
blouse and straw hat was the one center of all direction
and command of this mighty force. " His horse, however,
was always in full uniform. That was due to the orderly,
no doubt."
The next day after leaving Grand Gulf he learned,
through Colonel Wilson, and Rawlins, his chief of staff,
that the forces defeated by McPherson had fallen back,
not toward Vicksburg, but toward Jackson. He instantly
surmised that a considerable army was concentrating in
that direction. " Simply asking one or two questions, and
without rising from his chair, he wrote orders which turned
his entire army toward Jackson."
Then, mounting his horse, he set his command in
motion, sweeping resistlessly into the interior. This
moment when he turned his army toward Jackson is one
230 LIFE OF GRANT
of the greatest in his career. It showed the decision,
boldness, and intrepidity of the man beyond dispute.
Everything gave way before him, and while pigs, cattle,
chickens, mules, forage, and other good things were caught
and carried forward by the vacuum in the wake of his
march, there was little pillaging and no burning. He was
a humane invader. Perhaps in all this he was working out
suggestions gained by his observance of Scott when he cut
loose from Vera Cruz and started toward the mysterious
interior of Mexico.
Jackson was carried on the I4th. The Union flag was
raised on the state-house, and Grant slept in the same
room that the Confederate chief occupied the night before.
General Johnston sent a despatch to Pemberton, which
fell into Grant's hands, though he did not need it to tell
him what to do. He hastened the movement of McCler-
nand and McPherson toward Vicksburg, to head off John
ston's attempt to join Pemberton, and to meet the
Confederate troops. The armies met in a savage battle at
Champion's Hill, and Pemberton was forced to retire, after
four hours' hard fighting.*
He rapidly retreated to the Big Black River, where he
made another feeble stand, and then withdrew into Vicks
burg, leaving the victorious army of Grant between him-
* " The next time I saw him was under fire at Champion Hills. We were
standing two files deep, bearing as patiently as we could a heavy and steady
fire from infantry, while an occasional cannon-ball tore up the earth in our
front.
" ' Colonel, move your men a little by the left flank,' said a quiet though
commanding voice. On looking around I saw Grant immediately behind us.
He was mounted on a beautiful gray mare, and followed by several of his
staff. For some reason he dismounted, and most of his officers were sent to
other parts of the field. Here was Grant under fire. He stood leaning
quietly against his horse, smoking the stump of a cigar. His was the only
horse near the line, and must naturally have attracted the enemy's fire.
' What if he should be killed? ' I thought to myself. In front of us was an
enemy, behind us and about us, and liable to overcome and crush us at any
moment. For days we had been away from our base of supplies and march
ing inside the enemy's lines. What if Grant should be killed? I am sure
every one who saw him wished him away ; but there he was, and there he
remained, clear, calm, and immovable, with no sign of inward movement
upon his features. It was the same cool, calculating face that I had seen at
the bridge, the same careful, half-cynical face I afterward saw busied with
the affairs of state." — S. H. BYERS.
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG 231
self and Johnston. The game was in the bag, and Grant
smiled in grim fashion, and closed around the city. This
was on the nineteenth day of May. He had been on
the road one month.
On this day Sherman, with Grant by his side, stood on
Haines's Bluff and looked down on the very spot whence
his baffled army had fallen back months before. He
turned to Grant, saying: "General, up to this minute I
had no positive assurance of success. This," he said, " is
the end of one of the greatest campaigns in history."
Grant was deeply gratified, but he was not one to anticl
pate victory.
On the 1 9th of May, immediately after crossing the Big
Black, Grant ordered a preliminary assault which set the
two armies face to face. On the 22d he ordered a grand
assault. This order was a result of news of Johnston's
advance. He was but fifty miles away, with a large army.
To assault and win would set free a large force sufficient
to defeat, and possibly capture, Johnston. Moreover, the
officers and men were eager for a chance to " walk into
Vicksburg." They believed they could storm and carry
the works in an hour. So Grant gave the word, and
the 22d of May will forever remain memorable as a day
of terrible slaughter.
The enemy occupied a series of sharp ridges in a vast
semicircle about two miles from the city, and, to assault
the Federals, were obliged to descend into hollows and
charge up the steep hillsides through canebrake meshed
with fallen trees, in the face of appalling fire. The
men charged with exalted bravery up to the bases of
the parapets, and in some cases were forced to lie there
all day to avoid the enemy's guns. As night fell the
army fell back without having carried a single redoubt.
It was a wasting and disastrous assault, but it had this
virtue : it convinced the soldiers that Vicksburg was to be
taken only by determined siege, and made them patient
of what followed.
Grant now called upon his engineers to see what they
could do.
" The soil lent itself to the most elaborate trenching. It
232 LIFE OF GRANT
was a huge deposit of glacial drift, and could be cut like
cheese. Grant personally supervised this work every day,
and his questions were always shrewd and pat. He went
ahead alone, quietly and keenly studying every detail of
the work." He was impatient of delay, but he showed it
only in this careful study of progress from day to day.
Suddenly the army disappeared. It sank beneath the
earth, and, like some monstrous subterranean monster, ate
its way inexorably toward the enemy's lines, as Worth's
little band approached the Central Plaza of Monterey
through the adobe walls of its gardens.
The digging of trenches and the exploding of mines,
great as they were, are now seen to have been only inci
dents in the besieging process under Grant's persistent
command. He not only held Johnston at bay, but never
halted in his inexorable advance. Foot by foot, the army
closed round the doomed city like the torture-room of the
Inquisition, whose walls contracted with every tick of the
clock.
On foot, dusty, and in plain clothes, with head droop
ing in thought, but with quick eyes seeing all that went
on, the " old man " walked the ditches or stood upon the
hills studying the situation, careless — criminally careless
— of his person. The soldiers hardly discovered who he
was before he was gone. He invited no cheers or salutes,
but when they came he returned them instantly, no mat
ter how humble the source.
In this period, when success seemed sure, claimants for
the honor of originating the plan of the campaign arose,
and the discussion raged endlessly. Men who had been
glad to shift responsibility when the issue was in doubt
now hastened to let the world know that it was their own
plan. Grant never changed ; as he had attempted no shift
of responsibility, so now he troubled himself very little
about the claims of others. He had done a better thing
than originate the plan of campaign : he had executed it.
By the 1st of July the two armies were within pitch-
and-toss distance of each other. A mighty host had
turned moles. By day all was solitary. The heaps of
red earth alone gave indication of activity. No living
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG 233
thing moved over the battle-ground ; yet fifty thousand
men were there, ready to rise and fly at each other at a
word from the " old commander." At night low words,
ghostly whispers, and subdued noises ran up and down
the advance-lines, as the blue-coated sappers and miners
pushed forward some trench, or some weary, thirsty
file in a rifle-pit gave place to a relief. Occasionally
out of the blank darkness a rebel gun would crack, to be
answered by a score of Union rifles aimed at the rosy
flash. A feeling grew in each army that the end was
near.
Humorous conversations took place on picket-line:
"Hello, Yank! "
"Hello, Reb! "
"What you-uns doin' out there?"
" Guarding thirty thousand o' you prisoners, and makin'
you board yourselves."
"When you-uns goin' to take Vicksburg?"
" About the 4th of July. We want to celebrate and lick
you fellers all the same day."
On the night of the 2d the word was passed around
that a final assault was to be made on the Fourth. The
batteries were to open with a salute of a hundred guns in
honor of the day, and continue till further orders. The
advance-guard was told to let the enemy know this. A
yell went up which attracted the enemy's attention.
"Hello, Yank; what's up?"
" We 're goin' to give you hell on the Fourth — orders
just in. We 're goin' to pile right in on top o' ye."
"What '11 we be doin' all the while?"
" Gasping for breath. Say your prayers, Johnny! "
This order produced vast excitement within the lines.
The news went to Pemberton. He knew his men could
not stand an assault such as Grant could now make. His
lines were pierced in a score of places. He was out of
food, out of ammunition. His men were lean, weary, and
dispirited. He despaired of any help from Johnston.
On the morning of the 3d of July a white flag appeared
on the Confederate works. Again a Southern general
asked for commissioners to arrange terms of surrender.
234 LIFE OF GRANT
Again Grant replied : " I have no terms other than un
conditional surrender," but added that the brave men
within the works would be treated with all the respect due
to prisoners of war.
General Bowen, the blindfold messenger of peace, asked
Grant to meet General Pemberton between the lines ; and
supposing this to be General Pemberton's wish, he con
sented, and at mid-afternoon a wondrous scene took place.
At about 3 P. M. General Grant rode forward to the
extreme Union trenches, dismounted, and walked calmly
and slowly toward the center of the lines. At about the
same time General Pemberton left his lines, and, accom
panied by General Bowen and several of his staff, advanced
to meet Grant.
Then from the hitherto silent, motionless, ridged, and
ravaged hills grimy heads and dusty shoulders rose, till
every embankment bristled with bayonets. It was as if,
at some unheard signal, an army of gnomes had suddenly
risen from their secret runways. The underground sud
denly became of the open air. The inexorable burrowing
of the Northern army ceased.
A shiver of excitement ran over the men of both sides,
and all eyes were fixed upon that fateful figure advancing
toward the enemy, unexcitedly, with bent head, treading
the ground so long traversed only by the wing of the bullet
and the shadow of the shell. What he felt could not be
divined by any action of his. His visage was never more
inscrutable in its stern, calm lines.
The man who advanced to meet him was an old comrade
in arms — the same Pemberton, indeed, who had conveyed
to Lieutenant Grant, at San Cosme gate, the compliments
of General Worth. He came to this conference laboring
under profound excitement ; but Grant was easy in man
ner, and greeted him as an old acquaintance, but waited
for him to begin. There was an Awkward silence. Grant
waited insistently, for his understanding was that Pember
ton stood ready to make the first advance. Pemberton at
last began arrogantly :
" General Grant, I was present at the surrender of many
fortresses in Mexico, and in all cases the enemy granted
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG
terms and conditions. I think my army as much entitled
to these favors as a foreign foe."
" All the terms I have are stated in my letter of this
morning," Grant replied.
Pemberton drew himself stiffly erect. " Then the con
ference may as well terminate, and hostilities begin."
" Very well," replied Grant. " My army was never in
better condition to prosecute the siege."
Pemberton's eyes flashed. " You '11 bury a good many
more men before you get into Vicksburg."
This seemed to end the meeting; but General Bowen
intervened, urging a further conference ; and while he and
General A. J. Smith conversed, Grant and Pemberton
also moved aside, and sat down on a bank under a low
oak-tree. Pemberton was trembling with emotion, but
Grant sat with bent head, one hand idly pulling up grass-
blades. Suddenly the boom of cannon began again from
the gunboats.
Grant's face showed concern for the first time. He
rose.
" This is a mistake. I will send to Admiral Porter and
have that stopped."
"Oh, never mind; let it go on," said Pemberton, con
temptuously. " It won't hurt anybody. The gunboats
never hurt anybody."
" I '11 go home and write out the terms," Grant finally
said, as he rose to go.
The terms were exceedingly fair. Pemberton was to
give possession at 8 A. M., July 4; " and as soon as rolls
are made out and paroles signed by officers and men, you
will be allowed to march out of our lines, the officers tak
ing with them side-arms and clothing, and the field, staff,
and cavalry officers one horse each. The rank and file
will be allowed all their clothing, but no other property."
Perhaps Grant was moved to these generous terms by the
recollection of Scott's treatment of Santa Ana's troops at
Cerro Gordo. At any rate, they were criticized as being
absurdly lenient.
At ten o'clock on the morning of the 4th of July the
ragged, emaciated soldiers who had defended Vicks-
236 LIFE OF GRANT
burg so stanchly " marched out of their intrenchments.
With sad faces, the men of each regiment stacked their
arms, threw down upon them knapsacks, belts, cartridges,
and cap-pouches, and then tenderly crowned the piles with
their faded and riddled colors." Their stained clothing
contrasted mournfully with the blue of the Union troops.
For forty days they had lain in the pits, eating the scan
tiest fare, and to many of them it was a welcome relief to
throw down their muskets. For two hours this movement
went on, with no derisive cry or gesture on the part of
the victors. They knew the quality of these lean and tat
tered men, who were mistaken, but who were fighters.
The victor allowed himself no indulgences. He was
sleeplessly active. He had no thought of resting or going
into summer quarters. He put McPherson in command
of Vicksburg. He sent Sherman after Johnston the
moment Pemberton capitulated. He despatched a mes
senger to Banks, asking his needs. He forwarded the
Ninth Army-Corps to Bear Creek, to be ready to reinforce
Sherman if it were necessary, and, providing for their
return and movement to Kentucky, he ordered the boats
to be in readiness to transport the troops. He ordered
Herron's division to be in readiness to reinforce Banks.
He brought all the remaining troops within the rebel lines,
and gave orders to obliterate the works which the Union
army had toiled so long to fashion, and sent his engineers
to determine upon a shorter line, if possible, in order that
the garrison should be small. He advised Logan that as
soon as the rebel prisoners were out of the way he intended
to send him to the Tensas to clear out the Confederate
troops there. And in the midst of this multiplex activity
he asked Mr. Dana to inquire of General Halleck whether
he intended him to follow his own judgment in future
movements, or cooperate in some particular scheme of
operations.
His army was now let loose for other campaigns, and
this the Southern leaders thoroughly understood. The
fall of Vicksburg was a disaster. The march of Grant's
army foreboded the downfall of the Confederacy.
In all the correspondence of this strange conqueror
GRANT CAPTURES VICKSBURG 237
there is scarcely a single word of exultation, not a second
allusion to victory, even to his wife. He fought battles
and won victories in the design of moving to other battles
and other victories. His plan was to whip the enemy and
win a lasting peace.
The Vicksburg campaign had the audacity of the com
mon sense in opposition to the traditional. What the
military authorities had settled he could not do he did
swiftly, with astounding despatch, accuracy, and coherence
of design. He kept his own counsel, — a greater feat than
the other,— and it added to the mystery of his movements
and the certainty of his results.
He shrank from no necessary hardship. He was not a
student of books, but of life. He had acquired his wis
dom by experience. He had packed mules in Mexico,
and bound grain under the August sun of Missouri, and
hewn logs for his own cabin. He knew what men could
endure, and how much feed a horse required for a day's
march. His constitution and training enabled him to defy
fevers, to eat hardtack, and to sleep where night over
took him, without vexation or complaint. Pestilence and
the sea and the poisonous things of the forest, as well as
the cannon of the enemy, he had faced with calm intre
pidity. It seemed as if all things stood aside to see him
pass on to his larger life as a great commander. Belmont,
Henry, Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg — all these were
behind him, and he had no scar. He would not have
been human had not some feeling of foreordination assumed
possession of him.
The Vicksburg campaign brought to him a full know
ledge of his power to command men. He became con
vinced of his ability to do whatever his country demanded
of him. All that he was before Vicksburg he had been
when he drove teams in Gravois, but his powers were
latent. Circumstances gave him little, but they developed
him.
The Vicksburg campaign makes a natural division in his
career. He was now forty-one years of age, and at his fullest
powers of command and endurance. He had reached the
place where he now stood — in the light of national fame,
238 LIFE OF GRANT
holding the full confidence of the government — without
money, without political influence, after years of hardship,
disappointment, and privation. Now all opposition was
silenced, and his detractors were overborne. He had
placed himself among the great generals of the world, and
the nation waited to see what the conqueror of Vicksburg
would do next. On the I2th of October he received an
order making him the commander-in-chief of the entire
Western army, from the Cumberland Mountains to the
Brazos. This placed him in command of two hundred
thousand men.
CHAPTER XXXI
GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA
WHEN the order came from the War Department
asking Grant to proceed to Cairo, he was a cripple.
In returning from a review of General Banks's troops at
Carrollton, near New Orleans, the horse which he rode
became frightened at an engine, and shied and fell, throw
ing the general with great violence to the ground. He
was unconscious for some time, and was housed two weeks
in New Orleans before he became strong enough to return
to Vicksburg. He was still on crutches, and pale and thin,
when he met Secretary Stanton at Louisville, and accepted
the momentous command of all the Western armies.
It was Sunday night when he issued his orders taking
command, and telegraphed General Thomas to hold Chat
tanooga at all hazards. Thomas valiantly replied : " I will
hold the town till we starve! "
In the words of General Thomas lay a hint of the already
desperate situation of the Army of the Cumberland.
General Grant, eminent practitioner, had been called to a
severe case — a well-nigh hopeless case. The diagnosis of
Commander-in- Chief Halleck shows this:
" When General Buell was ordered into East Tennessee,
in the summer of 1862, Chattanooga was comparatively
unprotected ; but Bragg reached there before Buell, and,
by threatening his communications, forced him to retreat
on Nashville and Louisville. Again, after the battle of
Perryville, General Buell was urged by the War Depart
ment to pursue Bragg's defeated army and drive it out
of East Tennessee. Later, when Grant's campaign move-
239
240 LIFE OF GRANT
ments on the Mississippi had drawn out of Tennessee a
large force of the enemy, General Rosecrans was again
urged to take advantage of the opportunity ; but he could
not be persuaded to act in time."
General Burnside at Knoxville had failed to cooperate
with Rosecrans, though urged to do so several times by
General Halleck. The final result of all this had been a
desolating battle at Chickamauga, near Chattanooga, the
practical weakening and downfall of Rosecrans, and the
narrowly averted destruction of his whole army. Thomas
had held the rebel forces at bay, standing like a rock in
the swash of a sudden flood of retreating men, wherefore
he was called the " Rock of Chickamauga." The army
was practically defeated and beleaguered in its camps.
When General Grant took command, the Union forces
held Chattanooga and but little else south of the river, and
the confident enemy was within rifle distance ; indeed, the
pickets of the two armies conversed across the intervening
space. The Confederates occupied Missionary Ridge, a
long, low hill to the east and south, and also Lookout
Mountain, a bold height which almost overlooked the
town; the gray men blocked every line of communica
tion except one long, hilly, muddy, and well-nigh impas
sable road ; and, finally, they stood between Rosecrans and
General Burnside's army at Knoxville. Cooperation was
impossible. The army was on short rations, and the
horses and mules were dying of starvation. The sick
and wounded soldiers suffered for the necessaries of life.
To procure fire-wood it was necessary to skirmish daily
with the enemy's sharp-shooters. The trip of commissary
wagons, because of weakened animals and sloughs of red
mud, took weeks to accomplish, and the provisions spoiled
on the way. Rosecrans and Thomas had both been haul
ing all their provisions over this road under such con
ditions. The army was practically at a standstill, and
wasting away slowly but steadily.
Being in possession of the main facts, General Grant
telegraphed Thomas from Nashville : " I will leave here in
the morning, and push through to Chattanooga as soon as
possible. Should not large working parties be put upon
Longstreet.
Sherman.
Burnside.
Hancock.
Thomas.
McClellan.
Rosecrans.
Distinguished Generals who were fellow-cadets of Grant at West Point.
From the Civil War collection of Mr. Robert Coster.
GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA 241
the road between Bridgeport and Chattanooga at once?
General Meigs suggests this, and also that depots of forage
be established on each side of the mountain." He began
to telegraph for information from Thomas and Burnside,
and to make further suggestions, and took the train toward
Chattanooga. The railway ran only to Bridgeport.
From Bridgeport the general attempted to ride in an
ambulance ; but the pitching and tossing wrenched his
bruised and inflamed side, and he took to his horse. The
rain fell in floods, and the roads were well-nigh impassable,
but he pushed grimly forward. " Soldiers bore him in
their arms over the roughest places. At every telegraph-
station he despatched instructions to distant subordinates,
comprehending as if by intuition the condition and needs
of his scattered forces. He inspired every subordinate
with his own zeal and vigor."
Had he been well, this ride through mud and rain would
not have distracted his thought. As it was, he uttered no
word of complaint; he was impatient only of the slow
ness of the passage.
It was a sinister ride. The rain slashed over the land
scape drearily. The road was full of deep pitfalls of mud
and water, and to the general's searching eyes every rod
was filled with indications of the sore straits of the army.
It was like the way to some strange, cruel, desolate hell,
for all along it lay the gaunt and horrible carcasses of ani
mals killed by overwork and starvation. Mere racks of
bones, they had staggered faithfully on till life fled, and
then had been tumbled off the road to rot. If the artil
lery-horses were as poor and weak, cannon could not be
moved. It is no marvel that the general said : " If a re
treat had occurred at that time, it is not probable that
any of the army would have reached the railroad as an
organized body, if followed by the enemy." With firm-set
lips he rode on, his body racked with pain, and with these
gloomy evidences of defeat on every hand. He arrived at
Chattanooga on the night of the 23d, and went at once to
General Thomas's headquarters.
General Thomas received him formally and coldly, but
gave him a seat against the blazing fire in the wide old
242 LIFE OF GRANT
fireplace. There was little said on either side. Thomas
was the older man, but the subordinate officer. He
shared the feeling of the old regulars against Grant. He
had practically refused the command of the Army of the
Cumberland after Rosecrans's removal, and undoubtedly
considered himself a logical candidate for the position of
commander in the West, which, indeed, he was. He was
a splendid soldier, an honorable gentleman, and a man of
great powers; but he kept a sour silence while his lame,
wet, tired, and hungry commander-in-chief sat dripping
upon his hearthstone.
Colonel J. H. Wilson, Grant's inspector-general, had
started with him from Bridgeport, but had taken another
road. When he arrived he found Grant and Thomas sit
ting gloomily by the fire, neither saying a word. There
was a puddle of water where Grant sat, and he looked
thin and pale, but grim and reserved.
fe General Thomas," said Wilson, " can't you get General
Grant some dry clothing?"
The old general started up. " Why, bless me, yes ;
why, of course. Willard," he said to his colored man,
" send for some dry clothes for General Grant." He then
resumed his seat. Grant remained perfectly silent.
Wilson spoke again : " General Thomas, General Grant
is hungry. Can't we have something to eat? "
Again the old general started up. " Why, certainly ;
of course; we are to have some supper presently."
This curious discourtesy on the part of General Thomas
was not lost on General Grant, though he said nothing
concerning it, either then or afterward. He put aside
the dry clothing, but ate the food, keeping his own
counsel.
The next morning he was astir to study the situation.
He found the enemy in fortified positions on every height
to the east, south, and southwest. They not only occu
pied Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, but a hill
called Orchard Knob, which rose out of the valley scarcely
out of gunshot of the town. Practically the Army of the
Cumberland was besieged. In company with General
Thomas and his own staff, Grant passed down the river t«<
GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA 243
the southwest, in order to understand the plans which
General Thomas's engineers had originated but had not
executed. In a short time the commander-in-chief was in
possession of all the facts in the case, and ready to set his
subordinates at work.
The army felt his presence instantly. He had no hesi
tations. Rightly or wrongly, he went to work. Things
began to move, as they always did when he came near.
He found excellent plans for the relief of the army
sketched out by Thomas and Rosecrans. He gave due
credit for the plans, and proceeded to execute them, won
dering why plans so good had not been carried out before.
He ordered all animals that could be spared to be driven
back to forage. He started a division of troops to seize
Rankin's Ferry, to enable General Hooker to " possess a
road to Mountain Creek which gave water communication
to within a few miles of Chattanooga."
He sent a message in all haste to Sherman, whom he
had made the commander of the Department of the Ten
nessee, and who was at Corinth : " Drop everything east
of Bear Creek, and move with your entire force toward
Stevenson until you receive further orders." He gave
commands for transportation to enable Hooker to concen
trate his forces at Bridgeport, and three days after his
arrival he wrote to Halleck :
I arrived here on the night of the 23d, after a ride on horse
back of fifty miles from Bridgeport over the worst roads it is pos
sible to conceive of, and through a continuous drenching rain.
It is now clear, and so long as it continues so it is barely possi
ble to supply this army from its present base ; but when winter
rains set in it will be impossible. To guard against the possible
contingency of having to abandon Chattanooga for want of sup
plies, every precaution is being taken. The fortifications are
being pushed to completion, and, when done, a large part of the
troops could be removed back near to their supplies. The troops
at Bridgeport are engaged on the railroad to Jasper, and can
finish it in about two weeks. . . . General Thomas had also set
on foot, before my arrival, a plan for getting possession of the
river from a point below Lookout Mountain. If successful, and
I think it will be, the question of supplies will be fully settled.
244 LIFE OF GRANT
Sherman, in Corinth, dropped everything, according to
order, and began to move across country, working night
and day on bridges, making all possible haste to join his
chief. He knew great deeds were impending. Where
Grant went, things moved. The troops around Chatta
nooga also changed their attitude from dogged endurance
to an expectant and tense activity. They had with them
the man who had captured Vicksburg, and while many of
the officers and some of the men still carried the feeling of
jealousy born at Shiloh, the great body of the army wel
comed his command. He came and went swiftly, silently,
and with the air of a civilian on a tour of inspection. He
seemed entirely unconscious that any one was looking at
him, and apparently did not expect or welcome applaud
ing cheers.
He had established his headquarters " in a pleasant
dwelling on a little bluff overlooking the river and the
main street. For ten days he lived on hardtack, coffee,
desiccated vegetables, and salt meat." Not a very attrac
tive diet for a sick man ! But he could not complain when
his soldiers were parching corn purloined from the rations
of mules. But this condition did not last. Under his
resolute action, the river was reclaimed from the enemy,
and the " cracker line " was once more open. It had
taken him less than ten days. The army cheered and
chuckled with delight. The feeling of resentment against
him as an interloper lingered only among the more bitterly
partizan of the officers. It could not be denied but that
the situation was changing under his active influence.
His activity was unceasing. He had an eye to transporta
tion, to horseshoes for cavalry, and to forage for the mules.
He gave suggestions concerning casemating gunboats, and
for forwarding saddles, rations, steamers, and locomotives.
He personally supervised the fortifications, and wrote
most of his orders with his own hand. At one o'clock at
night a colonel, working in the light of covered fires to lay
a pontoon-bridge, heard the patter of a swift horse's feet,
and a man rode up, asked a few questions, and rode away,
giving no hint of his rank ; but the colonel saw his face as
he passed through a ray of light from a blanketed fire: it
GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA 245
was General Grant. Signal-officers, spies, deserters, were
carefully interrogated, and the army was held ready for
action at any moment.
In ten days after the cracker line was opened the men
were strong, the horses were nearly able to move the
artillery, and the general was waiting for Sherman before
beginning his aggressive campaign. Sherman's men were
performing prodigious things in way of bridge-building
and road-making; but the rivers were all swollen, and the
highways bottomless in mud. They pushed on, working
night and day.
General Grant had not only Chattanooga to look after :
he commanded two hundred thousand men over a thou
sand miles of territory. Burnside was in Knoxville, and
in sore distress. He, too, was beleaguered by the enemy,
and in need of supplies. Having opened up full com
munications for Thomas's Army, Grant was ready " to
force the enemy back from his position, and make Burn-
side secure in his command." He was ready to attack the
northern end of Missionary Ridge on the 7th, but Thomas
reported the movement impossible by reason of the weak
ness and small number of his teams. Artillery could not
be moved.
Grant wired Burnside : "Can you hold the line for
seven days ? If so, I think the whole Tennessee Valley
can be secured from all present danger." He was longing
for Sherman, with his well-fed teams and his hardy and
veteran troops.
At last, on the 2Oth, Sherman, in advance of his troops,
grizzled, gaunt, keen-eyed, and martial, met his chief; and
in the clasp of their hands the Confederate army had cause
to fear. Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, and Grant were
there, and such leadership predicted great movements.
Sherman, writing a friendly letter to McPherson on that
day, says :
I have been up to Chattanooga, and have seen the enemy's
camps all around in confident security. We must disturb that
seeming tranquillity, and the sooner the better. Grant can ride
now, and looks cheerful.
246 LIFE OF GRANT
In a letter to Stanton, General David Hunter describes
Grant at this time :
I was received by General Grant with the greatest kindness.
He gave me his bed, shared with me his room, gave me to ride
his favorite horse, read to me his despatches received and sent,
accompanied me on my reviews, and I accompanied him on all
his excursions. In fact, I saw him almost every moment of the
three weeks I spent in Chattanooga.
He is a hard worker, writes his own despatches and orders,
and does his own thinking. He is modest, quiet, never swears,
and seldom drinks, as he only took two drinks while I was with
him. He listens quietly to the opinions of others, and then
judges promptly for himself, and he is very prompt to avail him
self in the field of all the errors of the enemy. He is certainly a
good judge of men, and has called round him valuable com
manders. Prominent as General Grant now is before the coun
try, these remarks of mine may appear trite and uncalled for;
but having been ordered to inspect his command, I thought it
not improper to add my testimony with regard to the commander.
I will also add that I am fully convinced the change of com
manders was not made an hour too soon, and that if it had not
been made just when it was, we should have been driven from
the valley of the Tennessee, if not from the whole State.
The " fixed and immovable condition of the Army of
the Cumberland," which had so worried and impeded
General Grant, now began to change. Sherman's horses
were sent to move artillery for Thomas, whose teams were
still hardly able to carry themselves. General Bragg, the
Confederate chief, on the 2Oth sent a flag of truce into the
Union lines, with a warning to all non-combatants to forth
with flee. Grant smiled at this bluff. He was quite pre
pared to consider the best that he could give. Against
the strenuous opposition of General Longstreet, Bragg had
weakened his lines opposite Grant in order to crush and
capture Burnside. Longstreet was detailed to do this
work. Grant suspected this, and on the 22d of Novem
ber, Sherman's troops being nearly in position, he issued
his orders for a series of related and harmonious move
ments which involved the armies of Sherman, Hooker, and
Thomas.
GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA 247
Sherman was to cross the Tennessee River opposite the
northern end of Missionary Ridge, and to threaten or hold
the railway in Bragg's rear. Hooker was to move on the
enemy's left from Lookout Valley to Chattanooga Valley,
and push hard against the enemy's left, and, if possible,
also threaten him in the rear. Thomas, with the Army
of the Cumberland, all being ready, was ordered to attack
the enemy's center. News had been received that Burn-
side was attacked by Longstreet, and " the President and
Secretary of War and General Halleck were all in an
agony of suspense." Grant's suspense was also great;
but his share in the preparations of the battle helped him
to be patient. He determined to advance his center and
secure more of the valley in which to deploy his troops.
On the morning of the 23d, through General Thomas,
he ordered General Gordon Granger to " throw one divi
sion of the Fourth Corps forward to disclose the position
of the enemy." The preparations began. The troops were
disposed and aligned, and at half-past eleven of a clear
day, in full sight of the enemy, at sound of the bugle, the
Third Division moved out in magnificent alignment, exact
of formation, and in serried columns. Around on the
hills lay a hostile army, and a host of comrades in blue for
spectators, while behind on a low mound stood the man
whose quiet words directed these momentous movements.
Every soldier felt the eyes of the commander-in-chief
upon him. Not a man fell out of line. The men in blue
stepped proudly, with elastic tread, as though moving to
a feast, and under the inscrutable mask of General Grant's
face there must have been a thrill of deep emotion.
Orchard Knob was the citadel of the enemy's line in-
trenchments. Straight toward that, with feathery puffing
rows of white smoke running up and down the lines, the
Union soldiers moved, majestic, unbroken of order, then
broke at the Knob, and with a wild rush scaled and car
ried it. The trenches were soon won, and Orchard Knob
became the next point of observation for General Grant.
Meanwhile General Hooker was advancing on the right,
and Sherman on the left. All day on the 24th, hid in the
scarf of fog which hung over Lookout Mountain, Hooker's
248 LIFE OF GRANT
troops manoeuvered. All eyes were turned to watch the
issue. General Grant, with General Thomas, occupied
Orchard Knob. They could not see Hooker's forces in
action, and the sound of his guns palpitated through the
misty air. Every soldier in the army now waited tense
and eager to know what the "old commander's" next
orders were to be. All was quiet along the center.
Night and the fog closed down on Lookout Mountain.
The guns ceased, and then the whole mountain-front began
to sparkle with camp-fires as the mists lifted. Line upon
line of twinkling red flames showed the advancing ranks
of the loyal troops, and Hooker reported his position
secure. Then Grant telegraphed to Washington the good
news. Sherman was in line; Hooker would be on the
morrow. With a vast relief the commander now over
looked his battle-line from Orchard Knob. He was ready
for the last act of his eventful drama.
When the light came next morning, and the Union flag
was seen waving from the summit of Mount Lookout, a
mighty cheer roared along the lines. To have carried that
formidable height seemed more than prophecy of suc
cess. Yet Grant gave it but a glance. It was only a pre
paratory movement successfully carried out. It had but
subordinate value in itself. He turned his face toward
Sherman, whom he had ordered into action at daylight.
Long lines of the enemy could be seen moving toward the
northern end of the ridge to meet Sherman ; and the chief
was anxiously watching for Hooker's advance.
Early in the day Orchard Knob was again covered with
spectators of high rank ; General Thomas and his staff
were there, and General Grant, commander of the Division
of the Mississippi, was there ; and all the morning the
coming and going of aides set long lines of troops in
motion. Everywhere preparations for some great de
nouement were going forward. Every eye and every ear
was now turned toward Sherman, whose faintly booming
cannon informed the chief that battle was raging almost
uninterruptedly. The whole mighty theater of war was
open to view from Orchard Knob. Grant and Thomas
were like spectators in a private box, and across the pro-
GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA 249
scenium-arch Bragg and his staff could be seen, interested
spectators also, and full of activity.
Column after column of Bragg's army left the center
and concentrated against Sherman, as Grant had planned.
All was now ready for the advance of the center; but
Hooker had not yet appeared against the ridge at the
right, and Thomas was waiting his appearance. Sher
man, fighting desperately, wondered why things were at a
standstill to the south ; but he knew Grant would take care
of him, and so he fought on most resolutely.
Grant turned to General Thomas and in his quiet way
made suggestion : " Hooker has not come up, but I think
you had better move, on Sherman's account" He in
tended this to have the force of a command.
Thomas apparently acquiesced, but nearly an hour
passed, Grant expecting each moment to see the move
ment of the troops. Since morning the divisions of Gen
erals Sheridan and Wood had been in line, tense and
eager to advance. The thunder of Sherman's guns grew
more ominously furious, and at last General Grant said :
" Why are not our men moving? " In looking about, he
saw General Wood, who was to lead one of the assaulting
divisions, talking with General Thomas. " General Wood,
why are you not moving?" asked the chief, with some
sternness.
" I have received no orders."
The chief turned sharply to Thomas.
" General Thomas, why have not my orders been carried
out?"
" I gave them to Granger an hour ago," said Thomas.
"Where is he?"
General Granger was at work superintending the firing
of a battery, and had apparently forgotten that he had
anything else to do.
Grant summoned him, and said : " General Granger, if
you will leave that battery to its captain, and attend to
your duties, it will be better for all of us."
This vigorous personal direction on the part of the
commander-in-chief was needed; he should have disci
plined the officers before.
250 LIFE OF GRANT
Suddenly a cannon-shot broke from Orchard Knob;
then two, three, four, five, six, in measured intervals.
Then from their trenches rose the eager, waiting soldiers,
regiment after regiment, three lines deep and two miles
long ; and as they rose their ranked bayonets flamed back
the light. Bugles called faintly ; imperative voices came
driving to the ears of the spectators; forth-shooting horse
men floated like shadows down the declivity and out
toward the plain; and before the sixth cannon-shot had
echoed its way to silence among the hills, that enormous
and splendid array of men began to move. Bands were
playing, bright flags fluttering, and as they marched these
blue automatons cheered with heroic insolence. Not once
in a thousand years may human eyes look upon such a
scene. The hour of the day, the singular condition of the
battle, the configuration of the ground, made the scene
forever memorable. It was like some prodigious and
prodigal review organized to please a jaded and idle
despot.
Across the flat valley the line swept, curving slightly
here and there, but unbroken; and before it a line of
minute white puffing clouds of smoke told of the begin
ning of the battle. The enemy, leaning insolently on his
musket, had discovered that the review was a charge.
The artillery of the ridge broke forth in irregular clamor ;
cannons by the score uttered their terrible voices, and the
air was filled with the whistling, hustling, howling shells.
Instantly Orchard Knob was deserted. Every man
seemed to sink into the ground. The chief, seated on a
stool, was calmly looking over the low log parapet. The
rifle-pits at the base of the ridge whitened with musketry
fire, and still the blue lines swept on, their pace almost
unbroken, their flags fluttering in a curving line.
Then from their shelter the gray-coats swarmed in im
mense numbers, and irregularly receded to the next line
of defenses. There for a moment the blue line broke
and wavered in confusion. Orders conflicted. Horsemen
galloped along the line. Then suddenly the blue-coats
began to move forward again, but no longer in order of
rank. They formed now in accordance with nature's law;
GRANT RESCUES CHATTANOOGA 25 1
the strong and the swift came together with the colors, and
shot ahead, as points of roam outrun across the sand the
deep breakers behind. At the extreme point of each pro-
jecting wave of blue a flag glittered like a spark of flame.
Occasionally it halted for a moment. That meant death
to the color-bearer; but another hand seized it, and the
mounting wave outran its fellows to left and right; and
behind, on the slope, flecks of blue showed where some
nameless hero lay. The crest of the hill was now one
continuous bellowing flame of cannon-shots and musketry,
yet the blue wave mounted as if flung by some mysteri
ous enginery.
Down on the crest of Orchard Knob, tense and white
with excitement, the staff- officers clustered around Grant
and Thomas. Grant's face was impassive, but his blood
was thrilling with the conflict. He looked to the left, and
there was Sherman, fighting for his life. He looked to
the right, and Hooker was advancing. At his front his
soldiers were carrying all before them, sweeping upon the
very tents where the general-in-chief of the hostile army
stood. At last, as the second line of intrenchment was
carried, Grant's blood grew hot, and he said : " Bring my
horse; I 'm going up there." He turned to look for
Thomas, and he was gone! He had mounted his horse,
and was jogging back to Chattanooga to dinner.
Once in the saddle, Grant's fixed calm, his seeming
stolidity, vanished. He was transformed by the motion of
the horse. Down from the height and across the plain he
rushed, followed by his staff, eager to set his horse's feet
on the ground so long occupied by a confident foe. As
he rode he saw the ragged but unwavering wave of blue
sweep over the last range of rifle-pits, and as he reached
the hillside he saw the advance columns break over the
dread crest and silence the guns; and when his panting
horse brought him to the summit, he saw the enemy in
wild flight. Sheridan, though unhorsed, was mounted on
a cannon, ordering a pursuit, and the guns of the summit
were being turned upon the fleeing foe. Missionary
Ridge belonged to the Union, and the honor of retaking
it belonged to the private soldiers and to Grant.
252 LIFE OF GRANT
As he rode along the lines he was recognized, and
husky cheers from almost breathless soldiers arose. They
clung to his stirrups, and would not let him escape.
"Now we know we have a general!" they cried. His
pursuit did not cease till darkness fell.
That night the Assistant Secretary of War sent this
message to Washington : " Glory to God ! The day is
decisively ours. Our men are frantic with joy and en
thusiasm, and received Grant, as he rode along the lines
after the victory, with tumultuous shouts." The rank and
file of the Cumberland Army were his to command.
The next day was Thanksgiving day, and all over the
nation grateful millions of people blessed the name of
Grant, the prop-hauler of the Gravois, who had taken his
place among the great captains of the world.
CHAPTER XXXII
GRANT MEETS LINCOLN AND IS MADE COMMANDER-
IN-CHIEF
JUST as Grant's success at Vicksburg had brought
him to the command of the armies in the West, so
his superb campaign at Chattanooga led to the thought
that he was the one man in America to command in the
East. Rightly or wrongly, the feeling grew that the
leaders of movements in the East were insufficient.
Grant was the man. Make him commander-in-chief in
place of Halleck.
Halleck professed entire willingness to be deposed in
Grant's favor. He said : " I took it against my will, and
shall be most happy to leave it as soon as another is des
ignated to fill it. ... We have no time to quibble and
contend for pride of personal opinion. On this subject
there appears to be a better feeling among the officers of
the West than here."
In general the demand was that Grant should lead the
Army of the Potomac against Lee ; but a larger scheme
was on foot. Washburne introduced into Congress a bill
reviving the grade of lieutenant-general, which had died
with Washington, though General Scott had borne it by
brevet. To the ebullient patriots of the lower house
nothing was now too good for General Grant, and the bill
was received with applause. There was no concealment
of their wishes. They recommended Grant by name for
the honor.
Washburne took much pride in his early advocacy of
Grant, and called on his colleagues to witness whether his
253
254 LIFE OF GRANT
protege had not more than fulfilled all prophecies. " He
has fought more battles and won more victories than any
man living. He has captured more prisoners and taken
more guns than any general of modern times." The bill
passed the lower house by a vote of ninety-six to fifty-
two, and the Senate with but six dissenting votes. In the
Senate, however, the recommendation of Grant was
stricken out, although it was suggested that the President
might appoint some one else to the new rank instead of
Grant.
But the President was impatient to put Grant into the
high place. He had himself had to plan battles and ad
judicate between rival commanders, in addition to his
Presidential duties, until he was worn out. With a pro
found sigh of relief, he signed the bill, and nominated
General Grant to be the lieutenant-general of the armies
of the United States.
Grant was at Nashville when an order came from the
Secretary of War directing him to report in person to the
War Department. His first thought seems to have been of
Sherman, and his next of McPherson. On March 4, 1864,
in a private letter, he wrote :
DEAR SHERMAN : The bill reviving the grade of lieutenant-
general in the army has become a law, and my name has been
sent to the Senate for the place. I now receive orders to report
to Washington in person, which indicates either a confirmation
or a likelihood of confirmation. I start in the morning to com
ply with the order ; but I shall say very distinctly, on my arrival
there, that I accept no appointment which will require me to
make that city my headquarters. This, however, is not what I
started to write about.
Whilst I have been eminently successful in this war in at least
gaining the confidence of the public, no one feels more than I
how much of this success is due to the skill and energy, and the
harmonious putting forth of that energy and skill, of those whom
it has been my good fortune to have occupying a subordinate
position under me.
There are many officers to whom these remarks are applicable
to a greater or less degree, proportionate to their ability as sol
diers ; but what I want is to express my thanks to you and
McPherson as the men to whom, above all others, I feel indebted
GRANT MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 255
for whatever I have had of success. How far your advice and
suggestions have been of service, you know. How far your exe
cution of whatever has been given you to do entitles you to the
reward I am receiving, you cannot know as well as I. I feel
all the gratitude this letter can express, giving it the most flatter
ing construction.
The word " you " I use in the plural, intending it for McPher-
son also. I should write him, and will some day ; but, starting
in the morning, I do not know that I will find time now.
To this modest, manly, and deeply grateful letter Sher
man replied in kind. The friendship between these three
men was of the most noble and unselfish character, difficult
to parallel. Sherman said :
DEAR GENERAL : You do yourself injustice and us too much
honor in assigning to us too large a share of the merits which
have led to your high advancements. . . . You are Washington's
legitimate successor, and occupy a place of almost dangerous
elevation ; but if you can continue, as heretofore, to be yourself,
simple, honest, and unpretending, you will enjoy through life the
respect and love of friends, and the homage of millions of human
beings, that will award you a large share in securing them and
their descendants a government of law and stability. ...
Until you had won Donelson I confess I was almost cowed
by the terrible array of anarchical elements that presented them
selves at every point ; but that admitted the ray of light which I
have followed ever since.
I believe you are as brave, patriotic, and just as the great pro
totype Washington, as unselfish, kind-hearted, and honest as a
man should be ; but the chief characteristic is the simple faith in
success you have always manifested, which I can liken to no
thing else than the faith a Christian has in a Saviour. This faith
gave you victory at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Also, when you
have completed your last preparations, you go into battle without
hesitation, as at Chattanooga ; no doubts, no reserves; and I tell
you it was this that made us act with confidence. I knew, wher
ever I was, that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place
you would come, if alive.
Now as to the future. Don't stay in Washington. Halleck
is better qualified than you to stand the buffets of intrigue and
policy. Come West. Take to yourself the whole Mississippi
Valley. . . . Here lies the seat of coming empire, and from the
256 LIFE OF GRANT
West, when our tasks are done, we will make short work of
Charleston and Richmond and the impoverished coast of the
Atlantic.
With some such feeling in his own heart General Grant
went to Washington to report to the War Department and
to see Lincoln, whom up to this time he had never met.
Of intrigue and jealousy, he was aware, the Western army
had enough, but he knew they were weak and mild com
pared to the division and bitterness at the East. He had
no fear of Lee, — he was eager to meet him, — but he feared
the politicians, the schemes, the influences of the capital.
He went with the intention of returning to Chattanooga
at once and making it his headquarters.
On the way to Washington, he went carefully over the
situation once more. He had observed from the first
the lack of harmony in the movements of the armies of
the North. They operated without system, without unity.
The failure to cooperate had led to disaster at Shiloh,
whereas the harmony of movement led to final victory at
Vicksburg. The lack of prompt and harmonious coopera
tion had led to the beleaguerment of Burnside at Knox-
ville and of Thomas at Chickamauga, while concerted action
had snatched victory out of defeat at Chattanooga.
Carrying these facts in his mind, Grant determined to
demand of President Lincoln the assurance that the War
Department should cease to command in the field. The
War Department was an administrative office. The Sec
retary of War was a civilian, not a soldier, a political ap
pointment, and not a military chieftain. In time of war
he should not have power to interfere with campaigns at
the front. This was so obvious that its mere statement
should have carried conviction, but it did not. Nominally,
Stanton, under the President, ranked every officer in the
field, which was absurd.
General Grant made up his mind to say to Lincoln : " I
will accept the command of the armies of the United States
provided I can be free from the interference of the War
Department; otherwise I shall be obliged to decline the
honor."
He arrived in Washington late in the afternoon, and
GRANT MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 257
went at once to a hotel. As he modestly asked for a
room, the clerk loftily said : " I have nothing but a room
on the top floor."
•'Very well; that will do," said Grant, registering his
name.
The clerk gave one glance at the name, and nearly
leaped over the desk in his eagerness to place the best
rooms in the house at Grant's disposal.
As Grant entered the dining-room, some one said:
"Who is that major-general?" His shoulder-straps had
betrayed him.
The inquiry spread till some one recognized him.
"Why, that is Lieutenant-General Grant."
A cry arose: "Grant! Grant! Grant!" The guests
sprang to their feet, wild with excitement. " Where is
he?" "Which is he?"
Some one proposed three cheers for Grant, and when
they were given, Grant was forced to rise and bow, and
then the crowd began to surge toward him. He was
unable to finish his dinner, and fled.
Accompanied by Senator Cameron of Pennsylvania, he
went to the White House to report to the President.
Doubtless he would not have gone had he known that the
President was holding a reception, for he was in his every
day uniform, which was considerably worn and faded.
The word had passed swiftly that Grant was in town, and
that he would call upon the President ; therefore the crowd
was denser than usual. They did not recognize him at
first ; but as the news spread, a curious murmur arose, and
those who stood beside the President heard it and turned
toward the door. As Grant entered a hush fell over the
room. The crowd moved back, and left the two chief
men of all the nation facing each other.
Lincoln took Grant's small hand heartily in his big clasp,
and said : " I 'm glad to see you, general."
It was an impressive meeting. There stood the
supreme Executive of the nation and the chief of its
armies— the one tall, gaunt, almost formless, with wrin
kled, warty face, and deep, sorrowful eyes; the other
compact, of good size, but looking small beside the tall
258 LIFE OF GRANT
President, his demeanor modest, almost timid, but in the
broad, square head and in the close-clipped lips showing
decision, resolution, and unconquerable bravery. In some
fateful way these two men, both born in humble condi
tions, far from the esthetic, the superfine, the scholarly,
now stood together — the rail-splitter and the prop-hauler.
In their hands was more power for good than any kings
on earth possessed. They came of the West, but they
stood for the whole nation, and for the Union, and for the
rights of man. The striking together of their hands in a
compact to put down rebellion and free the blacks was
perceived to be one of the supremest moments of our
history.
For only an instant they stood there. Grant passed on
into the East Room, where the crowd flung itself upon
him. He was cheered wildly, and the room was jammed
with people crazy to touch his hands. He was forced to
stand on a sofa and show himself. He blushed like a girl.
The hand-shaking brought streams of perspiration from his
forehead and over his face. The hot room and the crowd
and the excitement swelled every vein in his brow, till he
looked more like a soldier fighting for his life than a hero
in a drawing-room. There was something delightfully
diffident and fresh and unspoiled about him, and words of
surprise gave way to phrases of affection. He was seen
to be the plain man his friends claimed him to be — home
spun, unaffected, sincere, and resolute.
He was relieved at last by the approach of a messenger
to call him to Mrs. Lincoln's side. With her he made a
tour of the room, followed by the President with a lady
on his arm, Lincoln's rugged face beaming with amused
interest in his new general-in-chief. This ended Grant's
sufferings for the moment. The President, upon reaching
comparative privacy, said :
" I am to formally present you with your commission
to-morrow morning at ten o'clock. I know, general, your
dread of speaking, so I shall read what I have to say. It
will only be four or five sentences. I would like you to
say something in reply which will soften the feeling of jeal
ousy among the officers, and encourage the nation."
GRANT MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 259
At last the general escaped from the close air of the
room, and as he felt the cool wind on his face outside the
White House, he wiped the sweat from his brow, drew a
long breath of relief, and said : " I hope that ends the
show business."
There were solemnity and a marked formality in the
presentation of the commission. In the presence of his
cabinet, the President rose and stood facing General
Grant, beside whom was his little son and the members of
his staff. From a slip of paper the President read these
words :
" GENERAL GRANT : The nation's appreciation of what
you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains
to be done, in the existing great struggle, are now pre
sented with this commission constituting you lieutenant-
general in the army of the United States. With this high
honor devolves upon you, also, a corresponding responsi
bility. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God,
it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add that with what
I here speak goes my own hearty concurrence."
General Grant's reply was equally simple, but his hands
shook, and he found some difficulty in controlling his
voice.
" MR. PRESIDENT : I accept the commission with
gratitude for the high honor conferred. With the aid of
the noble armies that have fought in so many fields for
our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not
to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of
the responsibilities now devolving upon me, and I know
that if they are met it will be due to those armies, and,
above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both
nations and men."
The two men again shook hands. Lincoln seemed to
be profoundly pleased with Grant. He found in him one
of his own people, suited to his own conception of an
American citizen, a man of the " plain people," whom,
he said, God must have loved, he made so many of them.
He liked Grant's modesty, and was too shrewd to call it
weakness. He had tried handsome and dashing generals,
and big and learned generals, and cautious and strategic
26O LIFE OF GRANT
generals, and generals who filled a uniform without a
wrinkle, and who glittered and gleamed on the parade,
and had voices like golden bugles, and who could walk the
polished floor of a ball-room with the grace of a dancing-
master, and generals bearded and circumspect and severe.
Now he was to try a man who despised show, who never
drew his saber or raised his voice or danced attendance
upon women ; a shy, simple-minded, reticent man, who
fought battles with one sole purpose, to put down the
Rebellion and restore peace to the nation ; a man who
executed orders swiftly, surely, and expected the like
obedience in others; a man who hated politics and de
spised trickery.
A heavy rain was falling the second day of Grant's stay
in Washington, but he did not allow it to interfere with
his work. All day he rode about, visiting the fortifica
tions. That night he dined with Secretary Seward, de
lighting everybody by his simple directness of manner.
He said little, but every word counted. The city was
mad to see him. All day crowds surged to and fro in the
hope of catching a momentary glimpse of him. A thou
sand invitations to dine were waiting him. But he kept
under cover, and the next day he started for the head
quarters of the Army of the Potomac. He spent one day
in swift, absorbed study of the situation. The day after,
he returned to Washington, and started for Nashville to
arrange his affairs there so that he could return East. He
had found so many rivalries and jealousies among the offi
cers that it became necessary to take command of the
Army of the Potomac in person, or, at least, to make his
headquarters in the field with it. He told the President
that nine days would enable him to put his Western com
mand in shape to leave it.
This undeviating and unhesitating action was a reve
lation of power to the East. The New York " Trib
une " said : " He hardly slept on his long journey East,
yet he went to work at once. Senators state with joy
that he is not going to hire a house in Washington, and
make war ridiculous by attempting to manceuver battles
from an arm-chair in Washington." His refusal to dine
GRANT MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 26l
and to lend himself to any " show business " was com
mented on with equal joy. The citizens of Washington
could scarcely believe he had visited the city at all. The
New York " Herald " said : " We have found our hero."
He returned to Nashville to make the necessary changes
of command. His own command there Sherman was to
take, while McPherson moved into Sherman's place.
These men Grant felt that he could trust absolutely,
and though disappointed rivals complained severely, it
made no difference.
Sherman came up from Memphis to meet him at Nash
ville. To him Grant detailed as much of his plan as to
any living man. One who saw the memorable meeting
between them (General Badeau) has given the following
vivid and powerful analysis of the two men. So impor
tant to the nation had they become, no one but Lincoln
himself overtopped them in public interest.
" The contrast between them was striking. Sherman
was tall, angular, and spare, as if his superabundant energy
had consumed his flesh ; sandy-haired, sharp-featured, his
nose prominent, his lips thin, his gray eyes flashing, his
whole face mobile as an actor's, his speech quick, decided,
loud. His words were distinct, his ideas clear and rapid,
coming, indeed, almost too fast for utterance, but in dra
matic, brilliant form, so that they got full development,
while an eager gesticulation illustrated and enforced his
thought. No one could be with him half an hour and
doubt his greatness."
" Grant was smaller, but stouter in form, younger in looks
and years, calmer in manner a hundredfold. His hair and
beard were brown, and both heavier than Sherman's ; his
features marked, but not prominent; while his eye, clear,
but not piercing nor penetrating, seemed formed rather to
resist than aid the interpretation of his thought, and never
betrayed that it was sounding the depths of another nature
than his own ; a heavy jaw ; a sharply cut mouth, which
had a singular power of expressing sweetness and strength
combined, and which at times became set with a rigidity
like that of fate itself ; a broad, square brow which at first
struck no one as imposing — these made up a physiog-
262 LIFE OF GRANT
nomy that artists always liked to model. The habitual
expression of his face was so quiet as to be almost incom
prehensible ; strong, but its strength concealed by the
manner of wearing hair and beard. His figure was com
pact and of medium height, but, though well-made, he
stooped slightly in the shoulders. His manner, plain,
placid, almost meek, in great moments disclosed to those
who knew him well immense, but still suppressed, inten
sity. In utterance he was slow and sometimes embar
rassed, but the words were well-chosen, never leaving the
remotest doubt of what he intended to convey, and now
and then fluent and forcible, when the speaker became
aroused. The whole man was a marvel of simplicity, a
powerful nature veiled in the plainest possible exterior,
imposing on all but the acutest judges of character, or the
constant companions of his unguarded hours.
" Not a sign about him suggested rank or reputation or
power. He discussed the most ordinary themes with ap
parent interest, and turned from them in the same quiet
tones, and without a shade of difference in his manner, to
decisions that involved the fate of armies, his own fame,
or the life of the republic — sending forty thousand men
on a new campaign or hearing of his own elevation to a
power and position unsurpassed by that of any general in
history with the same equanimity and apparently the same
indifference with which he listened to the trifles of the
hour or the rumors of the camp ; but uttering at the most
unexpected intervals, and in the most casual way, the
clearest ideas in the tersest form ; announcing judgments,
made apparently at the moment, which he never reversed,
and which the world has never seen reason to reverse ;
enunciating opinions or declaring plans of the most impor
tant character in the plainest words and commonest man
ner, as if great things and small were to him of equal
moment, as if it cost him no more to command armies
than to direct a farm, to capture cities than to drive a
horse.
" In battle, however, the sphinx awoke ; the riddle was
solved. The outward calm, indeed, was even then not
entirely broken ; but the utterance was prompt, the ideas
GRANT MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 263
were rapid, the judgment was decisive, the words were
those of command. The whole man became intense, as it
were, with a white heat. His nature, indeed, seemed like
a sword, drawn only in the field or in emergencies. At
ordinary times a scabbard concealed the sharpness and
temper of the blade ; but when this was thrown aside, amid
the smoke and din of battle, the weapon flashed and thrust
and smote and — won.
" These two, so different, had been together in evil re
port and good report, in disaster and in victory, in battles
and sieges and campaigns ; and neither had ever failed the
other."
They now struck hands in a great final campaign, Sher
man to start for the very heart of the Confederacy, Grant
to return to the Potomac to confront and master Lee.
There was to be no more backing and plunging of armies
like a balky team. For good or ill, they were to move
under the direction of one man, and that man subject only
to Abraham Lincoln, the President.
Promptly at the end of his nine days Grant was back in
Washington.
On the day of his return he held his first interview with
Lincoln alone. Lincoln said, in his half-humorous fashion :
" I have never professed to be a military man, nor to know
how campaigns should be conducted, and never wanted
to interfere in them. But procrastination on the part of
generals, and the pressure of the people at the North and
of Congress, which is always with me, have forced me into
issuing a series of military orders. I don't know but they
were all wrong, and I 'm pretty certain some of them
were. All I wanted, or ever wanted, is some one to take
the responsibility and act — and call on me for all assistance
needed. I pledge myself to use all the power of govern
ment in rendering such assistance." That was the sub
stance of the interview, Grant replying simply : " I will
do the best I can, Mr. President, with the means at
hand."
Lincoln said later, in reply to a question : " I don't know
General Grant's plans, and I don't want to know them.
Thank God, I 've got a general at last! "
264 LIFE OF GRANT
Grant went straight to headquarters at Culpeper, and
the papers quoted with glee his words : " There will be no
grand review, and no show business." The army was
utterly strange to him. The men did not know him when
they saw him. Many of the officers were McClellan-wor-
shipers, and some of them secretly sneered at the Western
man, who had in some mysterious way reached a dizzy
height, from which they expected to see him fall resound
ingly. " He has Lee to meet," they said.
General George G. Meade, who held the chief command
in the army, was a man of most irascible temperament,
but a patriot and a good soldier. He immediately said to
General Grant: "General, the work before us is of too
vast importance to allow the wishes or feelings of one
person to stand in the way of selecting the right men for
the right positions. If you would rather have General
Sherman take my place, don't hesitate to say so. I will
serve to the best of my ability in whatever position you
place me."
To this manly word Grant replied : " I have no thought
of putting any one in your place, general. Sherman can
not be spared from the West."
Now began mighty preparations. All things were to
move together — Sherman on Johnston's army, Banks up
Red River, Butler and Gillmore against Richmond from
the south side of the James River, while Grant in person
operated with Meade against Lee's army. "Where Lee's
army goes, there you will go also," he said to Meade.
Sherman's orders were to get as far into the interior of
the Confederacy as possible. " I want to be ready to
move by the 25th of April, if possible."
Sherman exultantly replied : " That we are now to act
on a common plan, converging to a common center, looks
like civilized warfare." To Halleck he wrote: "I believe
this grand army a unit now in action. General Grant has
a mammoth load to carry. He wants some one here who
will fulfil his plans, whole and entire, and at the time ap
pointed, and he believes I will do it. I hope he is not
mistaken. With Thomas as my center, McPherson as my
right, and Schofield on the left, I will have an army that
GRANT MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 265
will do anything within the range of human possibility. I
will be ready when Grant is; then stand from under!"
General Grant now commanded more men than any
captain that ever lived. His battle-line was more than a
thousand miles in length. It ran across the Alleghanies
to Knoxville, to Chattanooga, to Huntsville, to Memphis,
thence down the Mississippi to Vicksburg, and over to the
Red River. The Southern armies held part of Texas and
Louisiana, part of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the
Carolinas, and a large part of Virginia. Guerrilla bands
were continually raiding the country already held by the
Northern troops.
Grant had all these threads in his hands when he came
to the East. He had fought his way through this terri
tory. He knew Columbus and Henry and Donelson and
Vicksburg and Grenada and Jackson. He knew the diffi
culties, the resources of the country. He knew every
commander, and the number of troops necessary to every
part, not from theory, but because he had been there.
His knowledge was so exhaustive that when, on the last
days of April, he began to order his whole gigantic army
into the field, he did it as easily as he commanded the
lines of Chattanooga. He knew his men ; when he said
to McPherson or Sherman, " Do this," or " Do that,"
the details could safely be left to them. Yet he was
commander, and no one who knew him at that time
doubted it.
He deposed officers, and put men he knew in their
places. He wanted men of action. He should have dis
charged others at the start. He directed the movement
of supplies and of ammunition. His power and decision
ran through the army like an electrical current. Every
where activity set in ; lines were reformed ; stragglers
became soldiers; veterans on furlough were recalled.
There was all too little time to get this army in hand.
There was an ominous hush in the air as these secret
orders went flashing over the wire. The leaders of the
Confederacy made no mistake. They knew a different
man had come to deal with them — a man whose lips gave
out no indiscreet word. They could not divine his plan,
266 LIFE OF GRANT
but they assumed it would be a general attack. They
well knew that a mighty struggle was impending.
During this time, while in preparation for the spring cam
paign, General Grant's headquarters were visited by many
correspondents. One from abroad, who had access to the
inner military circles, said of him : " Grant is not intoxi
cated with flattery, as was McClellan ; I never met with a
man of so much simplicity, shyness, and decision. He has
lost nothing of his freshness of mind. He avoids Wash
ington and its corrupting allurements. He is essentially a
soldier of the camp and field. All his predecessors were
ruined by Washington influences. He has established his
headquarters ten miles nearer the enemy than Meade.
His tents are almost among the soldiers. That is a West
ern, and not a Potomac, army custom. He travels with
the simplicity of a second lieutenant, with a small trunk,
which he often forgets and goes off without. If Grant
fails, then a curse is on this army. He is a soldier to the
core, a genuine commoner, commander of a democratic
army from a democratic people. All this is very different
from McClellan. From what I learn of him, he is no more
afraid to take the responsibility of a million men than of
a single company."
The South divined, too, in a vague way, that Grant stood
for the plain people of the North, and not its politicians.
Their editors gave warning: " Grant is a determined man,
and has a tremendous force under his hand, and we may
rest assured that when he is beaten, it will be only when
the last capacity for fight has been taken out of him and
his army. Until this is done, our generals, army, and
government should brace every nerve, stretch every sinew,
force nature, and yield nothing to fatigue."
Lee understood this. Almost as silent as Grant, sad,
resolute, and lonely in the midst of his army, he pondered
on the coming of this new antagonist. He, too, began
preparations. Orders went out through all the South to
sweep the country clean of men of fighting age; all be
tween seventeen and fifty must carry arms. He hurried
detachments to the rear to seize and impress all stragglers,
deserters, and conscripts. Swiftly, determinedly, the whole
GRANT MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 267
South concentrated before the terrible Sherman and the
enigmatical Grant.
There were not wanting voices of entreaty opposing
this last desperate stand of the Southern soldier against
the illimitable and inexorable North. But they were of
no avail. The leaders of the South were not yet ready to
cease from the shedding of blood. They began to de
spair, but they would not yield. Preparations went on.
Each day saw these prodigious armies increasing in power
and intensifying in determination. Parks of artillery
shifted ground, and the rumble of their movements was
like the sound of coming tempests. Foraging-parties
swept over the land, leaving every farm-house bare of
food, and every farm-yard silent of its cattle. The rattle
of long trains of wagons, the braying of mules, the lowing
of cattle, seemed to prophesy some all-enveloping ap
proaching cataclysm. Every portent of horror, every
foreboding and dread of the barbarism of war, received
new emphasis, new terror.
At last the day came when the minute, indistinguishable
atom of blue among these swarms of other similar human
beings — this man from whom a million of his fellow-men
were to take their motion — was ready to lift his hand.
With calm face, with unshaken nerve, he took a final
survey of the field of war. He touched swords with
Sherman, and found him ready. To some men the re
sponsibility would have been too great, paralyzing the
will ; but Grant's eyes were never clearer, his voice was
never calmer, than when he said : " All is ready. Strike
tents! By the left flank, forward, march!"
CHAPTER XXXIII
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS
IT was in the early days of May, when the South was
filled with fragrance of blooming plants and trees.
The air was soft and sensuous, and all nature was rebuild
ing, healing, renewing, and the heart of man should have
been turned to the planting of seeds in the earth and the
driving forth of cattle to pasture. It was the month of
youth and love. But in the midst of this gentle, amiable
hour of nature's renaissance, Grant's armed and serried
soldiers moved upon the foe. When the citizens of Cul-
peper woke in the morning on the 4th of May, they were
amazed to find the Northern army gone. It was cross
ing the Rapidan River. Grant had begun his campaign
against Lee. The whole nation now waited the onset.
His aim was to flank Lee, and fight him between Cul-
peper and Richmond, if he would stand. Lee was ready
to fight. The two greatest warriors of the North and
South were now set face to face. Grant had the larger
army, but Lee had the inside lines, which was an enormous
advantage. He knew the country, too, and could choose
his own ground for attack. He selected the moment, and
struck the Northern army just as it was crossing a fire-
scarred, desolate, and almost impenetrable jungle called
the " Wilderness." It was a land filled with thickets for
ambuscades, surprises, bewilderments.
The Southern leader chose a most favorable moment for
attack, but he found, not a "loose mass of men," but a
wall of soldiery. His intention was to smash Grant's army
in detail, and send it back across the Rapidan. He sent
268
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 269
his whole army against Grant, and by midday on the 5th
of May both armies were engaged in a death-grapple.
For miles the sound of guns, blended with thunderous
commands, made the place a hell which the hovering bat
tle-smoke made the more appalling. Every thicket con
cealed assailants ; every ridge sustained cannon of enor
mous size and fury.
But Grant could not be stampeded. When the battle
was at its worst " he sat smoking a wooden pipe. His
face seemed as peaceful as a summer evening. His gen
eral demeanor was of indescribable imperturbability."
Aides came and went with excited messages. He heard
them through, turned to Meade, made suggestions in a
low voice, and returned to his pipe and his whittling.
There was nothing to indicate his great rank; scarcely
could he have been distinguished as an officer by one who
was a stranger to his ways and his person. He was
anxious, terribly anxious, but his wonderful self-control,
and the strange mask of his face, concealed his emotion.
Occasionally, when something demanded his personal
direction, he mounted his horse, and darted away swiftly
to the front. He had no fear; he was, on the contrary,
criminally reckless of his life.
Once an excited orderly rushed up to the whittling
general, and cried out:
" They have broken through ! Hancock has given way ! "
" I don't believe it," said Grant, in laconic and emphatic
reply, chipping away at the root of the tree against which
he sat. He knew Hancock, and believed in him. Then,
perceiving the aide's condition, he said kindly : " You are
fatigued and nervous; go in and lie down for a while."
The night came, and laid a hush on the battle, which
was unfinished. Lee had failed to break the Union line,
and now the men wondered what Grant would do.
He ordered an attack at half-past four in the morning.
It was his intention to fire the first gun ; but the uncon
querable Lee also determined to show his confidence.
The two armies began the appalling duel simultaneously,
and all day, in the spicy jungle, under a burning sun, the
two armies charged each other, desperate, parched with
270 LIFE OF GRANT
thirst, stained with smoke, staggering to and fro with the
faces of demons or of men walking in frenzy. Now one
section in blue made a sounding rush, carrying the gray
lines away, and then the gray-coats massed and came
back, yelling with demoniacal battle-madness. The sky
grew thick with smoke, which obscured the light of the
sun but seemed to intensify the heat.
Grant, sitting at Meade's headquarters, as before, lis
tened with the ear of an expert, yet appeared not to hear.
His cigar went out after a time, and he chewed at it slowly,
a sign of intense intellectual activity and anxiety with him.
His eyes were cast down as if in thought. It was only as
some orderly or aide rode up in hot haste that he looked
up to read the import of the message in the face of the
messenger.
" No movement of the enemy seemed to puzzle or dis
concert him. Fertile in resources, the petition for rein
forcement was speedily answered." His whittling was
strange to see. He made no start, did not rise to his feet,
when above the roar of the cannon the terrifying, appalling
battle-cry of the charging Southerners rose, uttered by ten
thousand maddened men. He listened, or, turning, spoke
a low word to some member of his staff.
Wherever he went, the men cheered, and fought the
harder. It gave them hope to know the eye of the com
mander was on them. Every officer who came into his
presence felt a return of confidence, and lost something of
any depression he may have felt.
Once he said to General Wright : " Hello, Wright. I
heard you 'd gone to Richmond," — in allusion to a report
of Wright's repulse, — and smiled at Wright's sturdy reply.
That night the sun went down red as blood ; the sky was
clouded with the hell-smoke of two hundred thousand
muskets, and the woods were on fire. The jungle began
to burn the dying and the dead it had tortured with thirst.
Near midnight a correspondent sat at a camp-fire, un
able to sleep, wondering sadly if he had followed the vic
torious Western chief to the Army of the Potomac only
to chronicle his ruin. Looking up, he saw Grant sitting
on the other side of the fire, his hat slouching so low and
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 2/1
the collar of his blue overcoat standing so high that most
of his face was hidden. He, too, was buried in thought.
Through the long, trying day his serenity had appeared
unshaken ; but now that he was alone, nervous shiftings of
one leg over the other, and worn, haggard looks, showed
how deeply he was moved by the dreadful and seemingly
fruitless shedding of blood.
To General Wright he had seemed almost careless of
the break in the lines ; not a muscle of his face quivered.
To those who did not know him he seemed never to think
of the dying or the dead, and yet suffering drew quick
tears from his eyes. His philosophy sustained him. He
was cruel only to be kind. Up to the date of his com
mand, more than one hundred and thirty thousand men
had been sacrificed in the Eastern armies, to little result.
The war must end soon. It was costly; the North was
crying out against the sacrifice ; and it lay with him more
than with any other man to determine how long it should
continue. He was haggard and worn and sorrowful, but
he was relentless. It was better for a thousand men to
die in battle than for ten thousand to die in camp. He
went to bed at last, determined to order an advance. He
had determined to take no backward steps.
Early the next morning, the third day in the Wilder
ness, the enemy being quiet, he issued orders for an ad
vance from the right to the left. Hancock was to remain
where he was till Warren passed him, thus keeping the
line always reinforced before the enemy.
Lee had withdrawn within intrenchments. Two terri
ble days' fighting had satisfied his men. Their hot blood
was cooled. But within the Union army was still doubt.
The men in Warren's corps talked all day about it.
" We 're whipped again ; now we 're going back," they
said. Some few said : " No ; we will have more fighting."
The day wore on, and at dark orders ran along the line :
"Fall in! No noise!"
"What does this mean?"
"We 're going back to Culpeper."
But when the orders came to march, they turned to the
east. A note of keen exultation ran along the line:
2/2 LIFE OF GRANT
"We 're going forward! Grant 's the man! No more
retreats!"
As they marched they came upon Hancock's men,
sleeping where they had halted, in long lines, like dead
men prepared for burial. As they heard the tramp of
feet, the rattle of canteens, they roused up.
"Who are you?"
" Warren's corps."
" Good God! where are you going?"
Quickly, exultantly, came the reply : " On to Rich
mond!"
Then wild cheers arose, and the men of Warren's corps
marched on, singing, as they marched, this refrain:
" Ulysses leads the van!
For we will dare
To follow where
Ulysses leads the van."
" Lee no longer commands both these armies," said
some of the soldiers. " The Army of the Potomac no
longer takes orders from him. We 've got a general of
our own.
" Ulysses leads the van !
For we will dare
To follow where
Ulysses leads the van."
Ulysses led the van. At about nine o'clock, followed
by his staff, Grant started to the left. " He led the way,
dashing along by-roads to avoid the troops and wagon-
trains. He galloped along in the darkness, his escort
trailing behind ; and whenever he passed a body of troops,
and they discovered who it was passing, they raised such
cheers and exultant outcries as the army had never heard.
No commander could have asked more heartfelt confi
dence. " The general rode along like a warrior with seri
ous business in hand. There was no smiling and bowing
toward the troops. He was gratified, but it did not change
him from his intent purpose." At twelve o'clock he
reached Todd's Tavern, wrapped himself in his blanket,
and slept till morning.
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 273
All night long his army moved, the right wing sliding
by the center and right; and when morning dawned a
new line was formed. Grant had fought his way out of
the Wilderness. Lee had done his worst. He had failed
to break the line or check the advance.
He was told Grant was retreating. " You are mistaken,"
he replied, — "quite mistaken; Grant isn't a retreating
man." He soon learned of Grant's movement, and the
two armies met in terrific battle at Spottsylvania Court
house, and against the mass of Grant's line Lee drove his
army again and again, to no gain and to great loss.
Grant and his subordinates remained unshaken. His army
now had absolutely unwavering faith in him, and was in
dauntless courage.
He was justified in saying : " The results of the three
days' fighting are in our favor." " I shall take no back
ward steps," he wrote, on the Qth ; and on the iith, after
a week of relentless fighting and steady advance, in a
communication to Halleck he added a companion line to
his Donelson ultimatum : " I propose to fight it out on
this line, if it takes all summer."
The whole land took it up in a flame of enthusiasm. It
was a new note of warfare. In its grim sententiousness
was the promise of victory and peace to a tortured nation.
It made Grant, for the time, something superhuman. It
seemed that such a leader could not be conquered. The
whole nation prayed that fevers and the elements and the
missiles of the enemy might spare his life. Upon his
single life the Union now seemed staked. The mere
thought of his death made the heart's blood of patriots
run cold with horror.
On the 2 ist of May he began again that peculiar,
menacing sidewise crawl of his army toward the south,
moving, as before, from right to left. Lee interposed
again. Having the inside lines, and less incumbered by
wagon-trains, he was able to move quicker. He was
again repulsed, and Grant's inexorable advance was again
resumed.
On the last day of May, Sheridan, in the advance, and
almost within sight of Richmond, met Lee's army in force.
274 LIFE OF GRANT
With orders from his chief to hold the crossing at Cold
Harbor Tavern at all hazards, Sheridan dismounted his
men, and intrenched. Against his lines, thus sheltered,
the enemy could not advance. In the morning the infan
try arrived, and the two armies met in another desperate
battle. Lee was fighting for Richmond in very truth now.
The smoke of her chimneys could be seen in the Southern
sky. Grant was eager to close the campaign. He ordered
a general assault, which failed. He took a day to bury
the dead and post his arriving troops, and on the third
day ordered another assault. This, too, failed, for lack of
personal supervision of Meade's orders by Grant, and
from lack of energy and cooperation among commanders.
The loss on both sides was very great.
Most commanders would have been broken by these
apparent failures, but Grant was not of that kind. Once
more he surprised his friends and bewildered his enemies
by an unexpected and skilful movement. He began his
flanking movement as though Cold Harbor had never been.
Whatever the leaders of the Confederacy said in public,
in secret they were appalled at these tactics. None knew
better than Lee and Hill and Beauregard what this move
ment meant. They were powerless to do more than
check it or turn it aside. An officer writing from Lee's
headquarters expressed the general feeling :
It is admitted that Lee has at last met a foeman who matches
his steel, although he may not be worthy of it. Each guards
himself perfectly, and gives his blow with a precise eye and cool
and sanguinary nerve. . . . From first to last Grant has shown great
skill and prudence, combined with remorseless persistence and
brutality. He is a scientific Goth resembling Alaric, destroying
the country as he goes, and delivering the people over to starva
tion. Nor does he bury his dead, but leaves them to rot on the
battle-field. He has commenced again, sliding his right down
past his left, doubtless in order to reach Bottom's Bridge and
the Long Bridge, with the intention of crossing to the Richmond
side. ... It may be, and probably is, Grant's design to make
across the James River to seize our communications, and thus
assure the destruction of our supplies and compel surrender ulti
mately through starvation.
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 275
Grant had become the " crafty Ulysses " to the
Southern editors. They no longer talked about his luck
and his ignorance of strategy. His skill in handling a
large army was now acknowledged by Generals Hill and
Beauregard.
It is arrant nonsense for Lee to say Grant can't make a night
march without his knowing it. Has he not slipped around him
four times already? Grant can get twenty thousand men to
Westover, and Lee know nothing about it. What is to become
of Petersburg? Its loss surely involves that of Richmond.
In this letter from General Hill to Beauregard was a
soldierly perception of Grant's last and most important
flanking movement. On the night of the I2th of June the
Union troops crossed the Chickahominy River and started
on a swift march to the left. Grant had determined to
place himself south of Richmond, seizing Petersburg, if
possible, and moving immediately on Richmond and Lee's
army — a most daring and splendid plan, which Lee could
scarcely believe possible. It was like Grant's superb au
dacity in getting south of Vicksburg. For two days Lee
telegraphed anxiously, almost distractedly, to Generals
Hill, Hampton, and Beauregard : " Where is Grant's
army?" "Find Grant's army." He was entirely at a
loss. Grant had again spirited his army of a hundred
thousand men out of the Confederate sight.
The chief's plan of action now began to be understood
by Lincoln. " I begin to see it, God bless you!" he tele
graphed.
Grant's continually flanking advance had at last brought
him within striking distance of the Confederate capital.
He was now ready to cooperate with Butler and attack
Richmond from the rear, cutting off Lee's southern lines
of communication. In doing this he left Washington un
guarded and the whole North apparently open to the
raids of the Southern cavalry. But he intended Lee to
have good use for every horse and man around Rich
mond, so that for the Confederates to go North would
not merely be a " swap of capitals " — it would be the
destruction of Lee's army.
276 LIFE OF GRANT
On June 14 he despatched to Halleck: "Our forces
will commence crossing the James to-day. The enemy
shows no signs of having brought troops to the south side
of Richmond. I will have Petersburg secured, if possible,
before they get in much force."
It was Grant's design to end the campaign right there,
and the leaders of the Southern army were more than half
convinced that he was about to close his tremendous and
skilful campaign with victory. On the I5th of June his
advance, under General W. F. Smith, operating under
General Butler, who commanded at Bermuda Hundred,
made an attack on Petersburg, which lies about twenty
miles below Richmond. The first assault was successful,
but was not vigorously followed up. General Smith,
after taking the outworks, bivouacked, waiting for Gen
eral Hancock to come up. Through some negligence,
Hancock's rations, which Grant had ordered Butler to
forward, did not reach him promptly, and he waited for
them several invaluable hours, and finally started without
them. He did not arrive in support of Smith until late in
the afternoon. Even then the city could have been taken.
No considerable body of troops had passed toward the
city up to four o'clock on the i6th. It was a moonlight
night, and a bold movement would have disclosed the
weakness of the garrison.
Hancock, waiving rank, asked for orders. General
Smith asked him to relieve his men in the intrenchments.
Nothing further was done by the Union commanders, but
all night long the Confederate leaders hurried men and
ammunitions southward, and when morning came the
gray-coats filled Petersburg. The golden hours had been
wasted ; Lee was intrenched, and as strong as ever.
And so this bloody duel between two monstrous armies
settled to a sullen siege. If Petersburg and Richmond
had been carried, as several of the Confederate generals ap
prehended they would be, it would have been indisputably
one of the greatest campaigns in history. It would have
saved millions of dollars and thousands of human lives.
The whole North turned sick with disappointment.
They had looked for a short, sharp campaign ending in
victory; and so it would have been but for the unforeseen
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 277
delays and embarrassments of a complicate movement.
Probably no one was culpable, but into the chorus of praise
crept the bitter words of Grant's enemies. Some sneered :
" This man from the West was successful till he met a
real general." Grant, with his customary patience, uttered
no word of explanation or complaint.
General Lee had fought his battles with almost equal
skill and determination. His army was compact, less en
cumbered, and swifter of movement. He knew the coun
try — every short cut, every swamp. Every man he had
was available ; details for guarding trains and supplies
were unnecessary. He had the interior lines, and, being
on the defensive, could select his own moment for strik
ing. He had more than seventy-five thousand men against
Grant's one hundred and six thousand. Grant's lines
were a crawling, enveloping cordon, Lee's a battering-
ram. Grant's work was to surround, Lee's to pierce.
Once when a group of officers were decrying Grant's
campaign, General Lee said : " Gentlemen, I think Gen
eral Grant has managed his affairs remarkably well."
This from General Lee, who was, like Grant, a man of few
words, was very significant. He understood something
of the difficulties in his adversary's way. He appreciated
the generalship of a man who could take an army of a
hundred thousand men out of his knowledge for two days.
Early in July, General Grant wrote to Lincoln, suggest
ing a call for three hundred thousand more men. In his
judgment, more troops were necessary, to enable him to
prevent raids throughout the vast extent of captured ter
ritory, and also to drive the enemy from his front without
losing the lines he already held or by attacking fortifica
tions. He well knew that Lee had made his last assault.
To this letter Lincoln replied, saying: " I think you have
not seen the call already issued." Father Abraham had
already called for
Three hundred thousand more,
Shouting the battle-cry of " Freedom!"
During the month which followed, an assault by way
of a mine was planned by Generals Burnside and Meade,
in which the chief acquiesced. Under the direction of
278 LIFE OF GRANT
Colonel Pleasants of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, a
regiment of miners, a tunnel was run beneath the enemy's
work, and an enormous mine made ready for explosion.
General Grant, by several menacing movements against
Richmond, drew the weight of Lee's troops away from
the fortifications fronting Burnside, and July 30 was fixed
as the date of the mine's trial and the accompanying
assault.
As the day drew near Grant became increasingly anx
ious about its outcome. He bivouacked with Burnside's
corps, to be near in case of need. He gave final instruc
tions on the night preceding the firing of the fuse. The
wrorks were to be cleared during the early part of the
nigh?, so that nothing should obstruct the morning at
tack. The hour set for touching the fuse was half-past
three in the morning. Lots were drawn among the divi
sion commanders of Burnside's corps. The leadership fell
to General Ladlie, the man least fitted for the work, and
the first mistake was made. Burnside had decided to
send General Ferrero's colored troops into the breach,
but was overruled by Meade, and sustained by the chief.
Thus a second mistake was headed off. At last all was
ready. The fuse was laid, the troops under orders, and
Grant and Meade were both at hand.
Everybody was astir in the moonless dawn. It was
dark and still. At half-past three the chief stood, watch
in hand, waiting. The army listened. The hour passed.
Ten minutes, thirty minutes, and still no sound. Forty-
five went by, and light began to break in the east. The
commanders were impatient. Meade was raging ; but the
chief stood motionless, with lips sternly set, and brow lined
with anxiety. Then an aide brought explanation. The
fuse had been lighted, and had smoldered out somewhere
in the long passage.
But two brave men (let their names be remembered),
Jacob Douty and Henry Reese, of the Forty- eighth Penn
sylvania, had entered the gallery to find and repair the
fuse. There was nothing to do but wait. General Grant
was not in command at that moment ; Sergeant Reese
was.
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 279
At last, over an hour past the appointed time, the
monstrous upheaval took place — first a shock, then a
roar, then the lifting of great masses of earth in the air,
wherein, mingled with flame and dust and disjected can
non, the torn, flapping, grotesque forms of men could be
seen in momentary hideous contortions. A crater thirty
feet deep, sixty feet wide, and nearly two hundred feet
long was opened by this terrific mine.
Then the cannon opened from the Union lines, battery
after battery, till nearly two hundred pieces were in action.
The air shivered and pulsed with the hot breath of these
monsters, and the ground trembled under their convulsive
leaping. It seemed nothing could live where their missiles
fell. The assaulting columns poured into the breach.
They started promptly and vigorously, but once in the
chasm, they fell into confusion. Some scrambled up the
sloping sandy sides. Some fell to rescuing Confederate sol
diers buried to the neck in debris. Others scorched the
works before them, sharp-shooting on their own account.
All order was lost. One regiment crowded upon another,
mixed and jumbled into a mob. There was no leadership.
Chaotic crowds clamored for direction. The thunder of
cannon and the howls of shells made the screams of regi
mental commanders of little account. General Ladlie was
nowhere to be seen. Generals of brigades were not nu
merous. No one wished to enter that death-trap, where
sand and shapeless blocks of earth made alignment impos
sible and assault almost certain death.
And yet at first there was little danger. Had the ad
vance pushed on rapidly, giving place to the succeeding
columns, the whole division could have been set safely on
high ground within the enemy's lines before they recovered
from their dismay. For nearly an hour the gray-coats
stood afar, in fear and awe. Then, reforming, they came
back to the defense, and poured a desolating hail of bul
lets upon the heads of the blue-coated men in the crater.
Grant, seeing that something was wrong, mounted his
horse and made directly to the front. He soon came to
a brigade lying upon its arms.
"Who commands this brigade?" he inquired.
280 LIFE OF GRANT
" I do," said an officer, springing from the ground.
"Why are you not moving on?"
" My orders are to follow that brigade," replied the
officer. "Will you give me the order to go now?"
" No," replied the chief, and rode on.
Everywhere the same story — everywhere men and offi
cers waiting for the advance columns to move. Grant
kept on until it was unsafe to go farther on horseback.
He dismounted, and, followed by Colonel Porter, elbowed
his way in all haste toward General Burnside. It was
evident that the attack had failed. The army was mak
ing leaderless and ineffectual assault, and Grant was
hurrying to stop the sacrifice. To save time and to gain
speed, he climbed the parapet, and ran along the outer
wall of the Union defenses, exposed to the enemy's fire.
He was streaming with perspiration and covered with
dust, but he hurried on without glancing back, while the
cannon-shots plowed up the ground around him.
General Burnside, occupying one of the most advanced
earthworks, was amazed to see the commander of the
armies of the United States enter the Union works from
the outside, dusty, panting with fatigue, his face dark with
anxiety and disappointment.
" General Burnside, the entire opportunity has been lost.
There is now no chance of success. These troops must
be immediately withdrawn. It is slaughter to leave them
there."
It was two o'clock before this order of General Grant
was carried out. The assault ended in bitter failure — for
lack of competent leadership, Grant thought. " I believe
that the men would have performed every duty required
of them, if they had been properly led." The month
closed gloomily, and the critics in the North held Grant
responsible.*
The explosion of this mine and the accompanying as
sault, great as they seemed, and disastrous as they proved,
were, after all, only incidents in the great campaign to
* This account of Grant's visit to Burnside is based upon General Porter's
story in his " Campaigning with Grant." The official Records of the War
Department furnish the basis of criticism.
GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS 281
which Grant had set his hand. He now planned to hold
Lee where he was, and push the distant Union armies
into new positions. The Southern forces had at last con
centrated into two grand armies, Hood confronting Sher
man in Georgia, and Lee defending Richmond. The
question was not how to whip them, but how to destroy
them.
The country fell into the trough of depression again,
and Grant, upon whom so much depended, was again
counted a failure. Condemnation became general, sweep
ing, and unjust. Vicious stories again circulated in
private circles, set afloat by discredited and displaced sub
ordinates. The army was still filled with antagonisms
and jealousies, and defeat and criticism brought about the
bitterest recriminations. Unquestionably, Grant should
have relieved a half-dozen of his subordinates, and re
placed them by those in harmony with himself and Gen
eral Meade. Napoleon or Bismarck would have had them
shot. If Grant was culpable at all, it was in not com
manding his subordinates with absolute authority.
Again the strong nature of the man came out. In the
midst of all discouragement, he set his teeth hard, and
tightened his hold upon Lee and the capital of the
Confederacy.
July was a hard month for General Grant. His tre
mendous campaign had ended in apparent failure.
Washington was menaced by Confederate forces under
General Early. Sherman was confronted by Johnston
and Hood at Atlanta; the Army of the Potomac was dis
couraged, grumbling at the heat, and filled with jealousy
and disputes; while the country had again lost faith in
General Grant himself.
Sherman was calling for reinforcements, and he himself
felt the need of more men. But the most dangerous and
disheartening thing of all was the rising clamor of half
hearted Northern critics. Upon this indifference the
South calculated. The North had almost ceased to vol
unteer ; the draft had been put in force ; and in the face
of new demands for reinforcements the copperhead press
of the North filled the air with howls for " peace at any
282 LIFE OF GRANT
cost." Citizens were advised to resist the draft. Meet
ings were called in Northern cities to denounce Grant and
the administration. Lincoln had been renominated for
the Presidency, and his election was as necessary to the
nation as the success of Sherman or Grant in the field.
No truthful history of the campaigns can ignore the enemy
in the rear.
Under these circumstances, insecurity again crept into
the minds of the War Department. Halleck advised
against any more severe fighting. The people were cry
ing out against the destruction of their sons, and the
enormous daily expense of the army was sinking the
nation hopelessly into debt. The great, rich, and powerful
North was divided, censorious, or, worse still, indifferent,
while the South was a military camp, a unit, desperately
resolute, and loyal to their cause, even to the last man.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG
T\ISHEARTENED by the clamor, but not for a
L/ moment despairing, Grant set to work. He sent
General Wright to oppose Early and drive him and break
him. He ordered all the recruits in the instruction schools
in the North turned over to Sherman, and assured him
that Lee was not likely to reinforce any other armies
whatsoever. It was to keep Lee engaged that he moved
from right to left again, threatening one of the principal
railways over which Richmond was supplied. It instructed
Lee, who could do nothing but wait Grant's motion, that
the Union commander had not loosened his hold.
Personal losses and annoyances thickened, also. Gen
eral McPherson, whom Grant loved with a brother's
affection, was killed before Atlanta, and the chief felt his
death more keenly than he cared to express. When the
news came, he was forced to retire to his tent, weeping.
He had become involved, also, in a very serious entan
glement with General Butler, an able man and a distin
guished civilian, but distrusted as a commander. Grant
wished very much to relieve him, but was prevented from
doing so because of political conditions in the North.
General McClellan was in the field as a Presidential can
didate in opposition to Lincoln, and was sure to receive a
large vote. The election of Lincoln was an absolute ne
cessity in carrying on the war, as every loyal commander
in the armies knew, and everything in the front was done
with an eye not merely to the enemies in gray, but to the
283
284 LIFE OF GRANT
enemies in civilian dress in the North. Therefore Gen
eral Grant bore with many things, suffering in silence
under the criticisms of those who did not know the secret
conditions of the time. He could not relieve General
Butler without throwing loose upon the North another
powerful, unsparing critic of Lincoln and the war policy
he had inaugurated. Neither could he report upon the
disaster at Petersburg on the 3Oth of July without reflect
ing upon influential generals, thus giving keener edge to
the differences, amounting to antagonisms, which already
existed between the corps commanders.
In addition to all these things, the cry, " Stop this
wholesale murder!" was raised. He himself was called
" Grant the butcher." The number of men killed in the
long campaign from the Rapidan to Petersburg was held
up before the world's eyes with shrieks of horror. Grant
was held responsible for this bloodshed by the peace party
in the North.
To this he grimly replied : " I am commanding an army.
The business of an army is to fight. This is war. I am
determined to whip out the Rebellion. There is no other
way. I am pursuing the same policy which I began at
Belmont. It is my intention to fight."
At the same time another great party cried out : " On
to Richmond! Why don't you crush the small army of
Lee, and end the war? Hurl your men upon that thin
gray line, and so end it."
Between these opposing parties, it seemed, any ordinary
commander would have had all courage and hope and loy
alty crushed out of him. But General Grant was not a
politician ; he was not devising civil policies : he was exe
cuting military commands. The President and War De
partment had made him general-in-chief of the armies of
the North, and he was directing them with entire single
ness of aim. He continued to fight, though obliged to
consider Lincoln's reelection a part of his autumn campaign.
Therefore he was exceedingly careful of attack, content
ing himself with a sure and safe advance, holding Lee at
Richmond while sending Sherman through the richest and
hitherto untouched portion of the Confederacy.
THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG 285
In a letter to his friend Washburne, he said :
We are progressing here slowly. The weather has been in
tolerably warm, so much so that marching troops is nearly
death. ... All we want now to assure an early restoration of
the Union is a determined unity of sentiment North. The
rebels have now in their ranks their last man ; a man lost by
them cannot be replaced. They have robbed the cradle and the
grave equally to get their present force. I have no doubt the
enemy are exceedingly anxious to hold out until after the Presi
dential election. They have many hopes upon its effect. They
hope for the election of a peace candidate.
Our peace friends, if they expect peace from separation, are
much mistaken. It would be but the beginning of war, with
thousands of our men joining the South because of our disgrace in
allowing separation. To have " peace on any terms " the South
would demand a restoration of their slaves already freed ; they
would demand indemnity for losses sustained ; and they would
demand a treaty which would make the North slave-hunters for
the South.
This letter shows how deeply he had considered the
whole problem. He never for one moment yielded to the
indifferentism of the North. He was determined to break
the Southern armies, and the harsher the criticism on him
the tighter his grip became. He was quite of a mind
with Lincoln, who wrote : " I have seen your despatch
expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where
you are. Hold on with a bulldog grip."
These two men, without anger, charged at one time
with not being antislavery men, were now the leaders in
a final desperate campaign. Hot bloods had cooled; en
thusiasms had changed to complaints ; but the President
and his general-in-chief seemed only just beginning to
fight. Lincoln, after hearing Grant's plan of autumn
campaign, said : " I am not much on military terms, but,
as I understand it, you are to hold the leg while the other
fellows take the skin off."
In this homely simile was included the substance of
Grant's campaigns for many months to come, and neither
Lincoln nor the general himself had any fear of its trium-
286 LIFE OF GRANT
phant outcome, provided the people in the North stood
by them politically.
During the month of August Washington was again in
a panic. It was feared that Lee had again despatched
troops to reinforce Early in the Shenandoah Valley, for
the purpose of making another raid across the Potomac.
Even Lincoln became anxious, and telegraphed Grant to
ask whether he had not better come himself. To this
Grant replied, in substance : " I do not believe Lee has
detached any considerable number of troops to go North.
If he does, I will see that he is occupied where he is."
However, finding it difficult to communicate with his
forces in the Shenandoah, Grant decided to send General
Sheridan to take charge of all the troops in that district,
without regard to the rank of any man, and his orders
were to put himself south of the Confederate forces, and
follow them to the death. He knew Sheridan, and felt
entirely satisfied that Early would ultimately be driven
out of the Shenandoah Valley, or be destroyed. This,
indeed, happened. Sheridan waited until the moment was
favorable, then laid his plans before his chief. Grant
said: " Go in." He went in, and defeated Early in one
savage battle, and forever saved Washington from assault.
Sherman, meanwhile, had taken Atlanta; and so again
these two " Grant men " had brought victory to the nation
at a time when the nation needed it most. These victories
prepared the way for Lincoln's triumphant reelection.
The whole atmosphere of the North cleared. It was at
last understood that Grant was carrying forward the war
on the lines which he had laid down a year before, upon
taking command of all the armies in the field. All forces
were moving now in unison. About this time he ex
pressed his own satisfaction with regard to the way things
were taking shape in a letter to his father to the effect
that all he asked was for Lee to stay where he was for a
short time.
At this moment began the actual working out of Sher
man's long-meditated march to the sea. Detaching Gen
eral Thomas to confront General Hood, " Old Tecump,"
spreading the wings of his desolating army, started on his
THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG 287
way toward Savannah, cutting the Confederacy in half.
This movement had arisen from the interaction of the
minds of Sherman and Grant during the campaign in
Georgia. Grant's idea at first had been to move on Mobile
after the capture of Atlanta, but later he suggested mov
ing on Augusta ; and out of these suggestions came Sher
man's final determination to cut loose from his base of
supplies, as Grant had done at Vicksburg, and to swing
directly across the State to the coast. On the I5th of
November, while the North was rejoicing over Lincoln's
successful reelection, he was under way with sixty thou
sand men ; and Lee, powerless in the hands of Grant, could
do nothing to impede the terrible progress of Sherman's
army.
This was indeed war. It was a strange lot which made
General Grant — a man of gentlest nature — the terror of the
South. From Donelson to Petersburg he had waged
unremitting, single-purposed war. He meant to conquer,
but his resolution was never bitter or revengeful. He
pursued his course with the idea of a restored Union ever
before his eyes; and though he chafed at delay, and at
the need of political compromises, yet he never became
soured or embittered.
It was his policy not merely to hold Lee where he
was, but to isolate him ; and so he crept slowly around to
the left, reaching out like an encompassing wall to shut
off the Confederate army from connection with the South.
His progress was like that of some enormous, slow-moving
serpent.
In December General Thomas met Hood's army at
Nashville, defeated it and almost destroyed it. Hood
was on his way North, moved by a design somewhat simi
lar to that of Early in the Shenandoah Valley. This
closed the heavy fighting for the winter, and the South
made no more aggressive campaigns. So, day by day,
the great game went on. General Grant, at City Point,
the calm center of direction, manipulated his armies, while
Lee sadly waited the inevitable end, and the Confederate
Congress debated the question of arming the slaves.
Davis, meanwhile, was being censured by a numerous
288 LIFE OF GRANT
party in the South for his military blunders and his mili
tary dictatorship. Dissension and dissolution had begun.
During all these days of vexation, delay, multitudinous
burdens, and malicious attack, General Grant, to those
near him, remained the same gentle, self-contained, and
masterful character. His headquarters were at City Point,
a level strip of land which runs out into the broad conflu
ence of the Appomattox and the James. He lived for
the first few months in a tent, as if on the march ; but
around him a city sprang up, and the river grew populous
with water-craft. Wharves, storehouses, railroad depots,
eating-houses, barber-shops, and other business houses
arose, while the call of stevedores and the shout of sailors
made the shore ring with life, and trains rumbled to and
fro carrying supplies to the army. Up on the breezy
headland it was quiet and very pleasant, but inland, to
ward Petersburg, it was very hot during the long autumn
days. In the line of rifle-pits which encircled the Con
federate city, the blue-coated soldiers sweltered in ill-
concealed impatience, and waited for the cool days of
November.
If the army seemed idle, its general was not. An
enormous amount of detail fell upon him during these
months. His position was second only to that of Lincoln
in the minds of both friends and enemies. Streams of
people crowded to see him ; politicians pitched upon him ;
critics assailed him; Generals Butler, Smith, and Warren
gave him trouble; and his life at City Point was one of
never-ending harassment and responsibility. The War
Department was also ready to find fault at any moment.
But he never seemed worried or hurried. His mind
seemed capable of any amount of work. He had a very
remarkable power of concentration, of introspection, of
carrying on a profound train of thought and yet being
aware of all that went on near him. He paid no attention
to any noise, scurry of business, or idle talking which did
not interest him — seemingly, was deaf and blind ; but let
a word be dropped which concerned things he should
know, and he was alert. It was impossible to startle him
— not because he was phlegmatic of temperament, but
THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG 289
because his brain was so active and so comprehensive, it
took up and accounted for every sound. He was not
annoyed by trivial conversations during his own work,
because he did not hear what he did not wish to hear.
In the midst of all the bustle and suspense of enormous
and complicated movement, he remained unimpatient and
equable of temper, because of the absolute assurance which
he had of his power to do the work in hand. There was
nothing formal about his headquarters. He was not un
like the head of a great business firm, plain, abstracted in
manner, unhesitating of action. It would not be true to
say that he had not changed since the days of Donelson
and Shiloh. He had come to be the commander in man
ner, although his commands were always quiet and with
out noise. He was never hasty, although some of his
subordinates were hasty with him, notably Rawlins, who
presumed at times upon his early acquaintance and the
general's love for him. But even Rawlins knew that
there was an impassable line between himself and his chief.
There was a point beyond which he did not go.
Self, with General Grant, was put entirely aside. His
mind was wholly on his duties. Nothing was done for
effect or for others to look at. His manner toward his
subordinates was simple and direct. He never sent them
on errands for his personal pleasure. He always greeted
them quietly as he came in, and took his seat at his table
as modestly as any clerk. When no one but the officers
were about headquarters he often talked pleasantly and
unaffectedly with those seated around. But no one pre
sumed to pat him on the shoulder. His plainness and
simplicity were accompanied by some intangible reserve
which demanded respect, not as a chief of the armies, but
as a human soul of innate dignity. His known weakness
in regard to alcoholic stimulants could not destroy this.
General Rawlins attended in large measure to the mere
business details connected with the headquarters, but any
letter written to General Grant reached him, and was read
by him, and replied to in his own handwriting. If he could
write a letter as quickly and as well as he could dictate, he
preferred to write. It was no trouble for him to compose,
290 LIFE OF GRANT
and, beyond occasional mistakes in spelling and grammar,
his letters were models of clearness and good taste.
He waited upon himself whenever possible. He got
his own mail at the adjutant's office, unless much occupied,
and used to laugh at General Ingalls for keeping a darky
to fan the flies off his bald head. He considered every
man his equal, in a certain sense, though he insisted on
having his orders strictly enforced. This, of course, he
considered necessary ; but there was nothing in his man
ner to his humblest clerk which set him apart as a man of
a different social position. Rawlins said of him : " I never
knew General Grant to betray a want of confidence in
those above him, nor to be drawn into any controversy by
those under him."
He never lolled about, and always spoke clearly and
distinctly, but never loudly. He would walk across the
intervening space rather than lift his voice to call to a
subordinate. Equally, no man abashed him. He was
serene in the presence of the greatest. He shirked no
hardship, and was always on duty. He grew steadily
greater in the opinion of those who were acute enough
to perceive his greatness in spite of his modesty and
simplicity.
In the field he was precisely the same ; no display, no
consciousness of being on exhibition. The staff-officer
most prized by him was the one who did his work the
quickest and with the least show. The men soon knew
what was required of them, and, dropping all parade,
became swift and businesslike in action. Occasionally a
new man came on the staff full of military etiquette and
display, but he soon fell in with the wishes of the chief.
Grant liked his aides to bring him accurate reports with
out excitement ; and sometimes he mildly reproved them
for showing undue emotion, knowing that such emotion
would result in exaggeration of statement.
As a result of all this, wherever General Grant was,
there tranquillity reigned. His very look begat confidence
and self-restraint. His headquarters were as peaceful as
a church. Flies buzzed to the " scratch, scratch " of
methodical pens at City Point, while cannon roared afar.
THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG 291
No general ever did more of his own labor than General
Grant. He toiled early and late. Often, after everybody
but his telegraph-operator and the mail-clerk had gone to
bed, he sat pondering over some problem. Often, after he
retired, the clerk carrying a despatch to him would find
him wide awake, waiting. His mind required that des
patch ; it filled some gap in his plans ; and upon receiving
it he was enabled to close his eyes and fall asleep.
He was much alone, and did his work alone. He was
not crowded in the position which he occupied at this
time. His subordinates were generally content to do as
they were told, and stop there. In matters of exchange,
in reading and writing telegrams, in discussions with
the War Department, in watching Thomas in Tennessee,
Canby on the Gulf, and Sherman in Georgia, the winter
came. Butler's failure to capture Fort Fisher (and the
reelection of Lincoln) had made it possible to relieve
the " political general," who went North in the attempt to
secure from the War Department reinstatement, in which
he very naturally failed.
Mrs. Grant came down and spent the winter with her
husband at City Point, where a little slat house had been
built for his accommodation in place of the tent, and there
the Grants lived almost as simply and plainly as at Hard-
scrabble, on the Gravois, in 1855. Many old friends
from St. Louis, Galena, Georgetown, and Bethel came to
see him and advise him what to do. It was impossible
for most of them to realize that he was general of several
hundred thousand armed men. They had no difficulty in
reaching him ; in fact, he welcomed them as a relief from
his military perplexities. They were amazed to find him
the same man they had known in private life. He in
quired after their children by name, and wanted to know
if it were true that Jane had married Tom, and that old
Uncle Lowdermilk was dead. He knew every man,
woman, and child in every small town in which he had
ever lived, and seemed to be eager to know how they
were all getting along. So plain and neighborly was he
that his visitors departed with a sense of disappointment,
not to say bewilderment.
292 LIFE OF GRANT
He was altogether too simple and transparent. They
would have better enjoyed the deep thunder of a martial
voice, the imperative clap of bells, the swift spring of
saluting aides. They were troubled in some cases with the
conviction that " Ulyss Grant was not so much of a gen
eral, after all," and that their advice might come in handy
with him before the war was done. They told the folks
at home that Ulyss was mighty glad to see them and talk
things over with them, and they did n't see how in the
world he ever come to get in that position, anyhow. It
was just his darn luck.
His courtesy was unfailing, even in the midst of the
most eventful periods. He seemed always to have time
for certain of his friends when they came. In fact, he
never seemed hurried. At the very time that Sherman
was calling for reinforcements, when General Early was
menacing Washington, and the siege of Petersburg was
demanding the most absorbed and wakeful attention, he
wrote in reply to a young school-girl in Washington,
acknowledging the gift of a smoking-cap in terms of
serene pleasantry. The saucy girl had said that he was
not to wear the cap until after he had taken Richmond.
To this he readily agreed, and said that it would not be
very long, either.
President Lincoln came down often, and was accustomed
to drop in at headquarters without warning, remove his
hat, and say, " Good morning, gentlemen," quite as if he
were a member of the office force. Upon entering, he
usually took a seat at the long table which stood in the
middle of the office. There, stretching his long legs out
at their full length, he composed himself for a comfortable
neighborly chat. He was usually inclined to tell stories,
and joke, seeming to enjoy a moment's escape from his
great burden. He very evidently rested securely upon
his great general's calmness and certainty of power. He
comprehended the plan ; he approved of it and had faith
in the ultimate victory of the Northern army. It is a trib
ute to the purity of Grant's life that Lincoln never told
coarse stories in his presence. He respected Grant's
hatred of wit at the expense of women,
THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG 293
The general was no gossip. He never made remarks in
criticism of a visitor after the visitor had left, and by his
manner always showed an objection to hearing others talk
about people " behind their backs." He disliked a show of
secrecy, and often stopped some one who began a whis
pered conversation by making his own replies in a loud
voice, which became ludicrous to bystanders and embar
rassing to the offending person.
He kept up his reading of the newspapers, and seemed
not to be disturbed by criticism. He kept his troubles to
himself. He had no small talk to amuse people with, but
he sought relaxation occasionally in talk of horses and
farming. This gave rise to the statement by some cor
respondents that Grant was an active horse-jockey, but a
mighty indolent general of armies. He was always rea
sonably neat of outer dress and scrupulously clean of linen,
but he had no time to spend in ceremonial dressing. He
wore one suit morning, noon, and night. His horse was
always smooth as silk, and his trappings in order.
He was a man of great sensitiveness in unexpected
directions. He could not bear the sight of blood. Raw
steak disgusted him. Suffering appealed to him so keenly
that he could not look on the wounded of a battle-field ;
he shuddered and averted his face. He could not endure
to see an animal abused, and the two occasions when he
lost his temper show his chivalry and gentleness. Once
he came upon a soldier insulting a woman, and with a
sudden rush he felled the miscreant with a clubbed musket.
The second instance was in the Wilderness campaign,
when he came upon a teamster beating a horse most
cruelly. For a "butcher" and a "bulldog" these are
curious traits.
As a commander his most marked characteristics were
measureless persistence, swift and unhesitant action, calm
mastery of details, considerateness in the treatment of
subordinates, courage to assume responsibility, and beyond
and perhaps above all, the capacity to do, in the heat and
tumult of war, things so conspicuously right that when
the battle is ended they seem to have been inspired by a
miraculous common sense.
294 LIFE OF GRANT
In these winter days, also, the peace-loving men and
women of both sections moved for a compromise which
should end the war. A commission was appointed by the
Confederate States, and on the last day of January its
members presented themselves on the Union lines about
Petersburg, and were immediately conducted to General
Grant's headquarters. They proved to be Alexander H.
Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, the Hon.
J. A. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, and Senator
R. M. T. Hunter.
General Grant made them comfortable, and informed
the President and Stanton of their presence and their
object, which was to negotiate a peace between the United
States and, as they termed it, the Confederate government.
Grant did not admit their claims to a government, and
had no dealings with them. He informed Stanton, how
ever, that he believed their intentions were good, but that
he did not feel at liberty to express views of his own,
neither could he account to them for his reticence. His
position was awkward, but there was no help for it. He
ended by expressing the wish that President Lincoln
should meet the commissioners within the Union lines.
This wish Lincoln determined to gratify. Accompanied
by Secretary Seward, he went to the front and met the
Southern commissioners. For four hours the talk lasted,
and ended without result. The Southern men were not
yet ready to submit, and Lincoln and Grant were never
further from any compromise. They were fighting for
two fundamental demands : first, that the Union should
be maintained ; and second, that slavery should forever be
abolished from the land. Neither the President nor his
chief for one instant thought of accepting less, and the
commission withdrew, while Grant tightened his hold on
Lee's army, and Sherman continued his desolating advance
through the Carolinas. War with Grant was constant and
inexorable advance.
In fulfilling these plans Sherman's star rose each day
higher, till he absorbed the attention of the nation, and
Grant, while not forgotten, was less studied and less men
tioned by the press, for which he was, no doubt, grateful.
THE SULLEN SIEGE OF PETERSBURG 295
There was something superbly dramatic and audacious in
the march of Sherman's army through the enemy's coun
try, now lost to sight, now reappearing in the blaze of
some captured city, while Grant apparently lay dozing at
Petersburg; therefore it was that Sherman became almost
equal in national importance, and, in the eyes of Grant's
ready critics, came at last to be the really great and only
commander of the Northern army. Sherman was no
longer the " crazy man " ; he was " Tecumsey the Great."
To the South he was " Attila the Scourge."
But there were those who perceived that Sherman was
the lash in Grant's controlling fist. There were those
who perceived that in Grant's mind lay the simple but
stupendous plan which made of Sherman one of three
converging armies whose center was Lee and Richmond.
For months Grant and Lee had stood like two prodigious
wrestlers, locked in a stern embrace. Each had been able
to hold his own, but neither had been able to move the
other. Lee was behind fortifications which Grant could
not storm. Grant held positions from which Lee had not
been able to rout him. Lee's fortifications were a neces
sity ; Grant's were only an expediency.
Grant, however, had not merely held Lee thus securely
intrenched, but had sent three great armies crashing
through the Confederacy at his will. He had swept the
Mississippi Valley clean of any considerable force. Thomas
had destroyed Hood's army ; Sheridan had beaten and
forever scattered Early 's forces; Schofield, after a success
ful campaign against Wilmington, had joined Sherman.
With these plans in his mind and these forces in his hand,
Grant could afford to pay no attention whatever to the
critics of his government.
Had his been an envious soul or a narrow mind, he
would have been fired with jealousy of Sherman ; but envy
had no place in his nature. He was jubilant when the
news of Sherman's success reached him, and when a
movement was started in the North to present Sherman
with some testimonial, Grant, in answer to a printed letter
inviting his cooperation, replied saying he had just written
to his father at Covington, asking him to start a subscrip-
296 LIFE OF GRANT
tion to present to Mrs. Sherman a furnished house in Cin
cinnati. " I directed my father to start the subscription
with five hundred dollars from me, and two hundred and
fifty dollars from General Ingalls. 1 cannot say a word
too highly in praise of General Sherman's service from the
beginning of the Rebellion to the present day."
" It is the greatest march in history," said Grant. " No
other man but Sherman could have marched so far in an
enemy's country, and be stronger at the finish than at the
start. He is a greater general than I am."
Nothing could set these two men against each other.
Sherman knew Grant's far-reaching mind and steadfast
purpose, and he went his conquering way, confident that
his chief had an ever-watchful eye for his welfare. He
knew Grant would keep Lee busy, and see the old Army
of the Tennessee safely through.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
DURING all these quiet winter months those best in
formed were aware of great plans forming in the
mind of General Grant, although no one, not even his
staff, knew what they were in detail. The soothsayers of
the land anticipated the " breaking forth of a terrific storm
of war " as soon as the roads became passable for cavalry
and cannon, and in this they were quite right. The final
movement was near at hand.
On the twenty-eighth day of March, in the after-cabin of
the River Queen, at City Point, the three chief actors in
the mighty drama of that day were gathered together.
Grant, Sherman, and Lincoln had met to discuss the situ
ation, and their meeting had immense significance. Sher
man's army was safe at the coast. Grant was steadily
pushing his lines round Lee to the west. All things were
ready. The moment might be well termed historical.
General Sherman, tall, thin, and nervous, formed the rest
less spirit of the group. Lincoln, sitting low in his chair,
with his long legs draped alternately over each other,
studied his two great chieftains with eyes which alternately
gleamed and glowed. Grant, compact, self-contained,
and silent, was the pivot round which the talk ran. To
him every question was ultimately referred.
After one of Sherman's rapid, fiery speeches, the Presi
dent turned his slightly smiling face toward Grant, and
asked him to explain his plans covering that point.
Grant replied : " At this moment Sheridan is crossing
the James River from the north by a pontoon-bridge below
298 LIFE OF GRANT
City Point. I have a large and well-appointed force of
cavalry with which I propose to strike the South Side and
Danville railways. These are the only roads left over
which Lee can supply his army. I intend to continue my
movement to the left until Lee is entirely cut off from the
Confederacy. He will be obliged to either surrender or
abandon Richmond. If he comes out of his lines to fight,
I shall whip him. My only fear is that he will slip away
to join Johnston in the South. I shall start with no dis
tinct view other than to prevent Lee from following Sheri
dan; but I shall be along myself, and take advantage of
anything that turns up."
Sherman smiled joyously. " Let him join Johnston, if
he wishes. My army at Goldsboro is strong enough to
whip him and Johnston combined, provided General Grant
can come up in a day or two. If Lee will remain at
Richmond another week, I can march to Burkeville, and
Lee will starve inside his own lines, or come out and fight
us."
Lincoln looked thoughtful. " How many men has Lee ? "
Grant replied : " I estimate his available force at sixty-
five thousand, but great numbers are deserting."
Lincoln seemed to think that in Lee's army the spirit of
battle still remained, and he asked sorrowfully :
" Can we not end this thing without another battle ?
Is it necessary that more blood be shed ? "
Grant and Sherman both felt that one more bloody bat
tle must be fought, but that would be the last.
Lincoln again exclaimed : " There has been blood
enough shed! We must avoid another battle."
"We cannot control that," replied Sherman. "That
rests with the enemy. If they attack, we must whip them.
Davis and Lee will be forced to fight one more desperate
battle. I think it will fall on me somewhere near Raleigh."
Grant then said : " If Lee will wait where he is for a few
days, I will have my army so disposed that if he attempts
to join Johnston I will be at his heels, and he cannot
escape."
Lincoln was profoundly excited by the plans of his
great generals. The end of the war seemed at hand, but
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 299
the fear of another day of carnage kept lodgment in his
mind. He longed for peace with the heart of a woman.
He would have accepted almost any terms at that moment.
But Grant, calm, gentle, but inflexible, supplied the
undeviating and dispassionate purpose of the war. His
mind was with Sheridan's troops, filing in long streams of
faded blue and flashing steel across the James River.
Even as the three men talked, Grant's great plans were
being executed by those who knew the " old commander "
was sending them to victory. Stoneman's cavalry was
pushing into West Virginia ; Wilson was on the way ;
Canby was in action in the South.
Grant had determined to close the war at once.
Sherman returned to his troops, and two days later, under
the chief's immediate command, the Army of the Potomac
began a momentous shifting of ground. The men looked
into each others' faces with shining eyes. Movement
meant victory ; they were done with waiting. The " old
man's " plans had ripened. Now for a short and sharp
campaign, and then home and happiness! Even the
men left in the trenches were ordered to keep face steadily
to the west. The final closing in was begun.
Sheridan moved out in advance as soon as artillery could
be moved. Division after division was withdrawn, and,
filing behind, the extreme left took new position, extend
ing the line by so many miles. It was like the movement
of a monstrous serpent — the same menacing and terrifying
movement which had begun on the Rapidan. Sheridan
was soon on his road to Five Forks, with instructions to
menace Lee's extreme right, and to draw out, defeat, and
flank the gray men at that point.
The Richmond papers kept up a loud-sounding promise
of victory ; but Lee knew all too well the kind of man he
had to deal with. His soldierly perception was sharpened,
not dulled, by Grant's apparent inactivity. He hurried to
the right wing of his army in person, hoping in some way
to defeat the " hammerer's " designs. He also reinforced
his line at that point, and met Sheridan at Five Forks with
desperate courage.
Sheridan, tardily reinforced by General Warren, moved
300 LIFE OF GRANT
to the assault with characteristic fire and force, and at
dusk on the night of the 1st of April sent his men over
the parapets of the enemy, capturing six thousand prisoners
and much artillery and small arms. The " little general "
followed the flying enemy in person until nine o'clock at
night. He then halted his troops, and himself rode back
to Five Forks to dispose of the remaining part of his
command in face of the enemy.
The chief smiled when this news came to him. " Good !
good!" he said. Then he let loose the majesty of his
whole army. The cannon opened from one end of the
line to the other. General Weitzel, on the north side of
the James River, was ordered to advance his forces to
menace the city of Richmond, and to enter if troops were
withdrawn. Orders were given to Wright and Parke to
assault Petersburg for the last time at four o'clock in
the morning. General Humphreys and General Ord of
the Army of the James, who occupied the south side of the
river, were to move upon the enemy at the very moment
they saw the lines weakened. Nothing the great com
mander had ever done was more orderly, more impressive,
more inexorable. It was war on a mighty scale. It was
an attempt to ensnare, not to defeat, an army.
At four o'clock, with a sudden redoubling of cannonad
ing, the blue-clad columns moved to the assault. Parke
and Wright moved out of their works, and advanced under
a desolating artillery fire from the enemy, and went
steadily on, sweeping the abatis from their front, on and
on till they mounted the parapets, and threw themselves
within the enemy's outer lines, and turned them against
the inner redoubts. They swept this exterior line clear of
gray-coats, and captured nearly three thousand prisoners.
At the same hour Ord and Humphreys had moved for
ward upon other outer lines of intrenchments. They, too,
were carried. When the news from all the points reached
Grant, he mounted his horse, and rode to the front to
join the troops inside the fortifications of the city. He
wanted to " be along" "to see what turned up."
General Lee made the most desperate efforts to regain
his line of outer works. He sent his brave men again and
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 30!
again against the blue-coated ranks. But in vain ; the con
ditions were changed. His troops were in the open,
Grant's intrenched. He could do nothing but waste his
men. Longstreet, one of his most tremendous fighters,
was ordered up from his position in defense of Richmond
against Weitzel — the last resource of a desperate com
mander. Grant smiled again when he heard this — a slow,
significant smile, without ferocity, the smile of a man
whose eyes are full of thought. He ordered Weitzel to
watch his chance, and when he saw an opening to go in
and possess the city.
The people of Richmond heard the sound of cannon on
that Sabbath morning, but, like the people of Vicksburg,
they had grown accustomed to " Grant's pyrotechnic dis
plays," and ate breakfast in comparative security, trusting
all to General Lee. While Lee's men died uselessly, these
citizens made ready for church, the ladies donning such
finery as they had retained ; and at about the hour when
Lee, haggard with misery, was uncovering Richmond by
ordering Longstreet to report at Petersburg, the churches
were filling up with a leisurely and stately moving throng,
mostly ladies. It was impossible that Lee should ever be
beaten or captured!
In St. Paul's Church was the largest and finest assem
blage, for Jefferson Davis worshiped there. The seats
were filled. The hymn was given out, and the rustling
hymn-book leaves were fluttering, when a messenger
slipped up the aisle and handed a despatch to President
Davis. It sent the blood back upon his heart, and a look
that awed his people came into his face ; and well it might.
The message was from Lee : " The enemy has broken my
line in three places. Richmond must be evacuated to
night." Davis read it, rose quietly and walked out, then
hurried to his office to give orders removing the seat of
government to Danville. This doomful news passed from
lip to lip, and a reign of flame and terror began in Rich
mond.
General Ewell, commanding the city, ordered the ware
houses to be burned. He fired all the shipping in the
river, and blew up all the rams, whose explosion reached
302 LIFE OF GRANT
the ears of General Wright. This conflagration set at
work by Ewell ate the heart out of Richmond, and the
smoke ascending to the sky told the Union troops of the
desperate condition of the city. The people went insane
with fear and excitement; flight began, and the worse
element of the streets began to plunder and destroy. At
eight o'clock the following morning General Weitzel
entered the city, followed by negro troops singing, with
characteristic frenzy of joy, their great marching chorus :
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on!
Down at Petersburg, Grant was with Meade, superin
tending the battle with Lee, who tried again and again to
beat back the encroaching blue wall, all to no purpose.
Sheridan came sweeping in from the west, and joined
Meade on the left, thus making a continuous battle-line,
which half inclosed the city. Grant, having all this under
his eyes, ordered the cannon to open at sunrise, to be fol
lowed by a grand assault an hour later. Before the sun
rose Lee gave up the fight and evacuated the city, starting
on his retreat to join Johnston.
Grant entered Petersburg so close on the flying troops
of Lee that he could have turned his cannon upon the
packed masses of the disorganized regiments ; but he had
not the heart to do so ; he wished to meet his enemy in the
front. It was not his design to follow Lee, but to head
him off, and he had already given orders to Sheridan to
move out along the south side of the Appomattox River,
and reach the Danville road in advance of Lee. The
ever-ready Sheridan had replied, saying : " My troops are
nine miles on the road already." And so the whole army
began to extend like a vast snare with intent to secure a
fleeing mass of gray-coated men.
It was all so simple, yet so immense. Sheridan, whom
the chief loved like a son, and whom he trusted as he
trusted his own right arm, was sent in advance to check
Lee's foremost columns, while General Grant himself re
mained with Ord at the center, to be in readiness for any
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 303
doubling of his desperate enemy. Meade was to hang on
the enemy's flank.
Grant telegraphed Lincoln to meet him at Petersburg,
which his own troops had evacuated in their pitiless pur
suit of the fleeing enemy. Grant was alone with a few
staff-officers when Lincoln arrived. The meeting took
place on the veranda of a deserted house, and was not
without its humorous word on Lincoln's part.
" Do you know, general," he said, " I had a sort of
sneaking idea for some days you were going to do some
thing like this!"
Grant smiled at the phrase " sneaking idea," for he had
concealed from the President the real form of his final
movement, wishing to spare him all disappointment. He
now opened all his plans. With a certain delicacy of
sentiment, he had refrained from calling in the Western
troops, because he wished the Army of the Potomac to
have the honor of capturing Richmond and Lee, if possi
ble, without outside aid. He feared ill feeling and bicker
ing to follow between the leaders of the East and West in
Congress. All this he explained in answer to Lincoln's
question concerning Sherman's cooperation.
Lincoln replied : " I see that now, but I had not thought
of it before. My anxiety to end the war has been so great
that I did not care where the aid came from."
With a hearty " God bless you ! " the President mounted
his horse and rode back to City Point, while Grant, with
out entering Richmond, with scarcely a glance in its direc
tion, galloped to the west to keep pace with his army
center; and so to a subordinate was given the honor of
entering the rebel capital and its presidential mansion.
The jubilant Union army was marching without rations,
and straight into the enemy's country ; but that did not
matter. " Richmond is taken ; this is the last campaign,"
they said, and so they had no fear of what was to follow.
They felt sure of ending Lee's career almost before the
need of further rations. The " old man " was along, and
things always moved where he was. The men sang and
shouted and laughed, and made prodigious marches with
out complaint, almost in a frenzy of delight. The roads
304 LIFE OF GRANT
were very bad, but they were as bad for the enemy ;
rations were as hard to get for the men in gray as for the
men in blue. And so the swift and tireless pursuit
went on.
" The armies of the South are now our strategic points,"
Grant wrote to Sherman, and pushed on, intent on throw
ing sufficient force between Lee and Burkeville on the
Danville road to stop him and bring him to bay. Sheri
dan and Meade joined at Jetersville, confronting Lee, who
was at Amelia Court-house, and Grant was still riding with
Ord on the left. When he came into camp, after being all
day on horseback, two soldiers in rebel uniform were
brought in as prisoners. They said they wished to see the
commanding general, and were immediately brought be
fore Grant.
They proved to be Union soldiers from Sheridan's
army, disguised as rebels. They had come through the
enemy's lines to avoid a long detour. One of them took
from his mouth a quid of tobacco in which was a small
pellet of tin-foil. This, when opened, was found to con
tain a note from Sheridan, written on tissue-paper, saying :
" It is of the utmost importance for the success of the
movement now being made that you come at once to
these headquarters. Meade has given his part of the
army orders to move in such a manner that Lee may
break through and escape."
Grant ordered a fresh horse, and set off at once, without
even waiting for a cup of coffee. Although Sheridan's
headquarters were not more than ten miles away, the gen
eral had to make a wide detour around the rebel lines, rid
ing nearly thirty miles in addition to his day's journey.
He was challenged by pickets, and had great difficulty in
getting through the lines, and was forced to pick his way
among sleeping soldiers bivouacked in the open field.
He reached Sheridan about midnight. He was awake,
waiting, and very anxious. He explained in a few vigor
ous words the situation. Meade had given him orders to
move on the right flank and cover Richmond. This, Sheri
dan said, would exactly open the door for Lee to escape.
Meade's fear was that by uncovering Richmond Lee would
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 305
get into our rear and trouble our communications. Sheri
dan's idea was to move on the west flank, leave Richmond
and the communications to take care of themselves, and to
swing between Lee and the road to Johnston, and press
and attack the Confederates wherever found.
Meade had misinterpreted Grant's plan. The question
was not the occupation of Richmond, but the destruction
of Lee's army.
The general started to find Meade, who was ailing and
in bed. He was very cordial, and began talking about the
next day's march and the route he had laid down. Grant
listened a moment, then said: " I do not approve of your
march. I do not want Richmond so much as Lee. Rich
mond is only a collection of houses ; Lee is an active force.
Your business is not to follow Lee, but to head him off."
He took out his pencil, and wrote an order countermand
ing Meade's orders, and directing the whole force to have
coffee at four o'clock, and move on the left flank. He
handed it to Meade, and said : " You have no time to lose."
Meade loyally went to work, and his next movement
threw the Union forces between Lee and the Carolinas,
and the battle of Sailor's Creek took place next day. No
single act of Grant's whole career was more vigorous, more
important, and more soldierly than this midnight ride of
thirty miles in an enemy's country without guard. It was
the power to do this, and the perception to understand the
need of promptness, that made Grant the general that he
was. This ride had something of the old-time heroism in it.
There was no danger of Lee's swinging to the left. He
was retreating with all the skill he could bring to bear, and
fought only when forced to do so. He was obliged to
cross the Danville road without meeting his provision-
trains, for Sheridan's advance-guard had sent them all
back down the line.
The gray men were hungry and muddy and weary, but
they were unconquerable of spirit. They continued their
flight, and Grant's pursuing columns pushed forward once
again to intercept them or bring them to bay. They
marched on into the night, although they had been a week
without rest.
306 LIFE OF GRANT
At Farmville the chief entered the tavern, scarcely yet
emptied of its Confederate guests of the night before. He
was satisfied the fight was out of Lee's army, and so
opened correspondence with Lee, who was only a few
miles away. He conveyed to Lee his opinion that further
struggle was a wanton waste of life, and called for the
surrender of the Confederate troops under his command.
The great net was spread and closing around the remnants
of Lee's disorganized army. Sheridan, with Ord, had
pushed on to the front with tremendous celerity, pausing
scarcely to eat or sleep, and was closing in on the Confed
erate front. Meade was holding the rear ranks securely,
and Grant himself was directing Humphreys in his pressure
against Lee's immediate command. His orders to Ord and
Sheridan were vigorous and jubilant.
After writing his letter to Lee, Grant strolled about the
village a little, and then went back to the tavern. He was
not at all well. A derangement of the stomach, combined
with the intense nervous strain of the week's fighting and
pursuit, had given him a blinding headache. As the night
fell he sat on the little piazza, of the inn, leaning over the
rail, and gazing over and beyond the marching troops
whose endless stream filled the streets.
He was at his greatest that night, absorbed, intent, re
lentless, his face set like granite. His staff stood apart
from him, almost in awe. " Oh, what a night that was!"
exclaimed Colonel Webster. " The ' old man ' was wonder
ful." Occasionally some officer in the passing troops would
recognize the somber, dreaming face above the railing, and
his salute would start a roaring cheer among the men.
But the chief gave no sign of approval or disapproval. He
did not seem to hear the salute. He was exteriorly with
out evidence of pride or exultation. He showed no anxiety
either, but he was in deep thought. He knew the pursuit
must end soon, for he was marching away from his sup
plies, whereas Lee was marching toward his strongholds
and his granaries. Should the pursuit last three days
longer, the Union forces must halt and feed themselves.
But the swift and sturdy Sheridan had reported himself
and his forces at last directly in Lee's advance, and de-
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 307
serters had informed him, also, how desperate was the
situation of the Confederate forces. It was impossible for
Lee to escape ; his campaigns were ended. Sheridan was
as sleepless as his chief; nothing escaped him. Lee's
precious supply-trains were turned back or destroyed.
Every advancing column of gray found every lane filled
with Union cavalry.
And yet, when Grant's letter came to Lee he could not
bring himself to surrender. He played a double game.
He approached the disingenuous in his reply. He played
for time by asking the terms of surrender, and suggested
a meeting to decide upon terms.
To his letter Grant replied, while still at Farmville :
" Peace being my greatest desire, there is but one condi
tion I would insist upon; namely, that men and officers
surrendered shall be disqualified from taking up arms
against the United States until properly exchanged."
Though Grant believed Lee to be meditating surrender,
and though he sent such word to Sheridan, he neglected
no precaution. " We will push him until the terms are
agreed upon," he added to Sheridan, who said, in reply:
" If General Gibbon and the Fifth Corps get up to-night,
we will perhaps finish the job in the morning. I do not
think that Lee means to surrender until compelled to do so."
That night General Grant stayed at a farm-house. He
was suffering increased pain. His hard week's campaign
ing, the intense anxiety and sleepless mental activity, had
told upon him. He was a very injudicious eater, and his
stomach was his weak point. He ate very little, — too
little, in fact, — but he was quite as apt to eat pickles and
cake, mingled with cream and vinegar and lettuce, as he
was to take more wholesome foods. If his wife cried out
against it, he merely smiled and said : " Let them fight it
out down there." Such lack of care had often brought
about indigestion ; and now, when he was most needed,
when he was at the most critical point of this pursuit, he
was forced to go to bed with mustard-plasters on his wrist
and at the base of his brain.
But he was by no means out of the fight. Sick as he
was, he was not to be caught napping by Lee's second
308 LIFE OF GRANT
letter, in which he said, " To be frank, I don't think the
emergency has arisen to call for the surrender of this
army," but added that he would be pleased to meet Gen
eral Grant at 10 A. M.
Grant replied :
i
I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace. The
meeting proposed for 10 A. M. to-day would do no good. ... I
will state, however, general, that I am equally anxious for peace
with yourself, and the whole North entertains the same feeling.
The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood ;
by the South laying down their arms they will hasten that most
desirable event, save thousands of human lives and hundreds and
hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. Sincerely
hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of
another life, etc.
This letter, confused and inelegant as it was, conveyed
a most sincere and humane desire to avoid further fight
ing, and was not without adroitness. It conveyed to Lee
the inflexible purpose of its writer. Any further bloodshed
was certainly to be laid to Lee's own selfish pride. There
was but one thing to be done — to bow the head to the will
of the God of progress.
Lee called a council of war that night, the 8th of April,
and read the correspondence of General Grant. Around
the camp-fire gathered the members of his staff, including
Generals Longstreet, Fitzhugh Lee, and Gordon. There
Lee presented the situation quietly, somberly, and dispas
sionately. He said : " I am averse to surrendering, but
the situation demands it. It cannot be avoided. My de
sire is now to avoid any further bloodshed."
Some of the younger men of the council did not share
the depth of his discouragement, and after some delibera
tion General Gordon was selected to lead a desperate as
sault on Sheridan's cavalry and open a way of escape. It
was a forlorn hope, but it put off the hour of surrender, and
with some reluctance Lee assented, even though his letters
to Grant had conveyed a different intention.
"Do you think you can cut your way through?" he
asked,
U. S. Grant early in 1865, near the close of the war, age 43 years.
From a spoiled negative.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 309
" Yes," replied Gordon ; " I can force a passage through
any number of cavalry."
This assault took place ; but when General Gordon was
congratulating himself that he was making way, the cavalry
suddenly parted in the middle and rolled back like a cur
tain, and there, ranked, ready, and menacing, stood the
Army of the James, under command of Ord, a wall of blue
with a crest of steel, impenetrable and insuperable.
The worn, hungry, muddy, and desperate men in gray
grounded their arms, and looked at one another in silence.
Grant's army had outmarched them on longer lines — had
surrounded them. The flag of truce must go up now, or
the Army of Northern Virginia break up in tumbled heaps
on a bloody field.
Gordon sent a despairing despatch to General Lee, say
ing: " Unless Longstreet comes up at once, all is lost."
Lee replied in a singular note, saying : " There is a flag
of truce in existence between me and General Grant. You
can take vour own course about notifying the officer in
command of the forces on your front," — by which it would
seem he had ceased to send direct orders to General
Gordon.
Meanwhile General Grant had received word from the
Confederate general-in-chief expressing willingness to treat
for surrender. This word cured Grant of his sick-headache
at once. He threw it off as quickly as he might have
thrown off his hat, and hastened to the front. He found
Sheridan's troops drawn up in line of battle and facing the
enemy near by. The men were deeply excited, and the
subordinate officers were riding to and fro wildly. Men and
officers alike wanted to go in and finish the business right
then, for they feared the truce to be a mere trick to gain
time.
Grant had greater reason than any of them knew to be
lieve it a trick, but he was too sure of his power to refuse
this chance. He rode through the lines toward the
enemy, and on to the place where the Confederate leader
was waiting to meet him. Lee, accompanied by Colonel
Marshall of his staff, had been seated for some time in a
near-by farm-house, a plain brick cottage with a veranda.
3IO LIFE OF GRANT
It was owned by a man named McLean, who was walk
ing distractedly about, dazed and helpless with the sudden
weight of war which was thrust upon him.
When General Grant entered, the room was partly filled
by his own officers ; but on one side of the room General
Lee sat in silence, with Colonel Marshall, his secretary,
near him. General Lee's face was pale, but impassible.
What his thoughts were no one could tell. He looked
like a man who had failed of a high purpose, but accepted
his failure with philosophic resignation. He was clad in
a new suit, and looked like an officer prepared for grand
review. His sword, gloves, boots, all showed great care
and good taste. His gray full beard was trimmed and his
hair in perfect order. He had in him something of the old
cavalier, who met death well-ordered and debonair.
General Grant, without pausing, walked directly toward
him, and Lee rose, and the two men shook hands. Grant
spoke of the Mexican War, and of the curious fact that he
had not seen General Lee since that time.
As they stood talking thus, Grant's officers looked at
each other significantly. Their chief was a most violent
contrast to the Southern leader. He was considerably
shorter, and his bearing quite unmilitary. He was splashed
with mud, and his trousers were tucked into his boots.
He wore the uniform of a private soldier, with the straps
of lieutenant-general sewed to the shoulders. He was
haggard from his recent illness and the strain of a week's
hard riding. He needed the testimony of all his sub
ordinates to verify his identity with the " remorseless
Hun" and the "scientific Alaric " of the Southern press.
Without doubt, Lee was amazed, but his face, almost as
sphinx-like as Grant's, gave no outward sign.
The most marked expression of General Grant was his
kindness. His reluctance to introduce the distressing pur
pose of the meeting was evident. He conveyed by his
whole manner such delicacy of sympathy, and such marked
desire not to humiliate his late foes unnecessarily, that
one of his subordinates asked of another: "Who 's sur
rendering here, anyhow?" Grant himself said: "I had
been quite jubilant on the receipt of General Lee's letter " ;
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 3! I
but he was now sad, out of the kindness and almost wo
manly sympathy of his nature. He was eager to finish up
the surrender in such wise as not to add to the painful
dejection of the Southern men.
" The conversation grew so pleasant that he almost for
got the object of the meeting." General Lee called his
attention to the purpose of their coming together, which
was to get from General Grant the terms he proposed to
give to the Southern army. He suggested that the terms
be reduced to writing.
General Grant then called Colonel Ely Parker of his
staff, and asked him to bring a small table which stood at
the opposite side of the room. This was done, and Gen
eral Grant then wrote in pencil the terms of the surrender,
and took it to General Lee, who remained seated. Thus
the victor went to the vanquished in the manner of a con
siderate younger man. There was no thought of military
etiquette in his mind.
In the final paragraph of this first draft was written these
words : " The arms, artillery, and public property to be
parked and stacked and turned over to the officer appointed
by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-
arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage.
This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return
to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States
authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws
in force where they reside."
General Lee, reading this simple, direct, and kindly
letter, seemed moved by its generosity, and said : " This
will have a most happy effect upon my army." He re
ferred particularly to the part covering the release of all
claim upon the horses of the cavalrymen, which were the
private property of their riders. By the generous fore
sight of General Grant, they could now ride their horses
back to their farms, and use them in their spring work.
The terms of the letter having been agreed upon, Gen
eral Grant directed Colonel Parker, a member of his staff,
to make a copy of it in ink. While this was being done
he turned to General Sheridan and said : " General Sheri
dan, General Lee tells me that he has some twelve thou-
312 LIFE OF GRANT
sand of our people prisoners, who are sharing with the
men, and that none of them have anything to eat. How
many rations can you spare?"
Sheridan replied: " About twenty-five thousand."
Grant turned to Lee. " General Lee, will that be
enough? "
" More than enough," replied Lee.
" Very well. General Sheridan, direct your commissary
to send twenty-five thousand rations to General Lee's
commissary."
When the letters had been copied in ink, and signed,
the two men rose, and a little general conversation again
took place, in the course of which General Grant apolo
gized for his dress, remarking that his wagons were behind,
and that he had not wished to detain General Lee while
he sent back for them. General Lee seemed to accept
this in the spirit in which it was spoken, and the two
leaders shook hands and parted.
As Lee passed out Grant's aides respectfully rose. Lee
did not appear to notice them. As he stood on the steps
waiting for his horse, he looked away for an instant over
the green valley, and " smote his hands together again and
again in an absent and despairing way." When his horse
came up he mounted and returned to his lines.
Far back in the Western town of Galena, in 1861, an
obscure country editor had said of a still more obscure
citizen of his town : " A magnanimous man like Captain
Grant can put down this Rebellion ; vindictive men never
can." And here, now, on his own responsibility, in the
glow of a natural impulse of his considerate and forgiving
nature, Lieutenant-General Grant gave terms which melted
the hard hearts of thousands of men and women to whom
he had been a destroying, invading Hun, and when Lee
met him the following morning he spoke feelingly of the
profound impression made upon his army. " The entire
South will respond to your clemency," he said.
Every order issued thereafter by General Grant was in
accordance with the spirit of his terms to Lee. He ad
vised against all signs of exultation ; for the war is
ended, he said, and Lee and his men are fellow-citizens
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 313
of the same nation, and not to be humiliated. His old
classmates and comrades in the Mexican War came that
night to thank him for his courtesy.
He met them as if nothing had happened, and, hooking
his arm in that of General Longstreet, and calling him by
his old army nickname, he said with a gentle, half-sorrow
ful cadence in his voice : " Pete, let 's return to the happy
old days by playing a game of ' brag.' '
He began right there on the field of Appomattox the
work of reconstruction. As after Fort Henry he moved
on Donelson, and from Vicksburg on Chattanooga, so now
his restless brain was filled with plans, not to conquer
other cities, but to end the war, to reduce expenses, to
disband the army, and to go home. He felt sure John
ston would surrender to Sherman at once. He could trust
Sherman to look out for that, and leaving Generals Gib
bon, Griffin, and Merritt to carry into effect the work of
paroling the Southern troops, he moved on Washington
and its army of contractors, in the aim to stop the purchase
of supplies, to cut down the army, to cancel the charter
of useless vessels, and to reduce the country to the con
ditions of peace at the earliest moment.
As an honorable warrior he had no fear that Lee or his
army would violate their paroles ; and knowing Lincoln's
support to be his, he had no fear of the assaults of bellig
erent Northern politicians. His mind was at ease, and
his face, seamed with lines of care, smoothed out; his
thought ran swiftly to meet his wife and children.
" Are you not going into Richmond? " a friend said.
''No; I have about a day's work in Washington, and
then I am going on to New Jersey to see my children,"
he replied.
Accompanied by his staff, of which Rawlins was chief,
the general took the train for City Point. His announce
ment of victory to the War Department was a telegram
of only five or six lines, but it set the North aflame with
joy. " The war is over ; our boys are coming home ! " the
people said; and added: "God bless General Grant!
His name lent itself to pleasant puns, such as, " He
Grants us peace." It had a long train of heroic memories
314 LIFE OF GRANT
now. There was but one man who stood on his plane at
this time, and that was Abraham Lincoln, another self-
made man of the West.
It was late at night, or, rather, early in the morning, when
the general entered the office at headquarters at City
Point. There were but two or three of his staff present
as he took a seat at his table. After writing a few min
utes, he looked up smilingly, and said half-musingly, not
addressing anybody in particular, " More of Grant's luck."
He finished a despatch to Sherman announcing the
victory, then rose with these significant words, spoken as
if they announced the beginning of a new campaign :
" Now for Mexico."
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN, THE SURRENDER
OF JOHNSTON, AND THE GRAND REVIEW
E;AVING City Point, Grant proceeded directly to
Washington, arriving there on the evening of the
1 3th. The city was ablaze with enthusiasm over the re
port of the surrender of Lee. Bands of employees from
the navy-yard and from other public buildings formed in
procession and went about the streets singing jubilant
songs. The city flamed forth with illuminations and
blossomed with flags. The name of Grant became at
once the sign and signal for the wildest applause. Every
body was in the streets.
In the midst of all this General Grant himself arrived in
his characteristic way. He slipped into Willard's Hotel,
and registered, not knowing, apparently, that the city was
frantic to do him honor. In fact, few people knew that
he was present until the following morning, when the
notice of his arrival appeared in the papers. He paid no
attention to the crowd, to the demands made upon him
for speeches, but set busily to work upon plans of needed
retrenchment. In his estimation, the war was over, and
the burdens of the people should be lightened. All of his
orders were of this tendency. He stopped the further
manufacture of arms, discharged convalescent soldiers,
canceled the charter of needless vessels, and cut down the
bills for supplies. He spent a very busy day with these
details, working very hard, for the reason that he was
eager to accompany Mrs. Grant to Burlington, New
Jersey, where his eldest children were. He refused, also,
315
316 LIFE OF GRANT
an invitation from President Lincoln to attend the theater
with him that night, and late in the evening left on the
Baltimore and Ohio road for Philadelphia.
He was about taking the train at Camden for Burling
ton, late that night, when a despatch was handed him
which conveyed the appalling news : " The President has
been assassinated. Return at once." Washington was
panic-stricken. It wished to be assured that General
Grant lived, and it needed his presence at the seat of
government. Lincoln had been shot and killed while
seated in his box at Ford's Theater. An assault had been
made upon Secretary of State Seward, and it was feared
that the plot included also the assassination of General
Grant. The general returned to Washington by special
train, and the country drew a deep breath of relief. His
steady and powerful hand was once more upon the
machinery of the War Department.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, calamitous as it
was, had, after all, but small influence on the war. It did not
cripple or disarrange or confuse or bewilder military affairs.
Sherman in the field was about to conclude terms of sur
render with Joseph E. Johnston. He put the despatch
announcing the death of Lincoln into his pocket, and
passed on to meet his conquered foe. At Appomattox
the paroling officers proceeded to execute General Grant's
orders with regard to Lee's captured army. The pursuit
of General Kirby Smith in the West did not falter. Every
order issued by the lieutenant-general of the armies of the
United States went forward to execution inflexibly.
So in the nation at large the business and necessary
daily duties of men, interrupted for a moment, resumed
their course as a great river rolls on over a sunken ship.
Lincoln, who seemed so colossal, so necessary, ceased to
be a moving factor in the affairs of state, but his gentle
and gracious spirit lived in the mind of General Sherman
and General Grant. Had Grant perished with Lincoln,
the nation might have been thrown into mad confusion;
but when the people learned that General Grant was safe,
and had returned to Washington, all danger of a panic
ceased.
THE GRAND REVIEW '317
Not only was General Grant unshakable in his resolution
to do his duty as a warrior, but he was also immovable by
the excited Stanton and Halleck. With his steady fingers
on the keys controlling the armies of the United States,
he sat in silence, self-contained and unangered, while the
excitables around him cried out for revenge. He never
for an hour relaxed his hold on the military details of his
office, and he never forgot the needs of Mexico for a sin
gle day. Nothing could confuse or bewilder him, and
every day made it increasingly evident that he was the
chief man of the nation, now that Abraham Lincoln had
passed away ; and when he sat at the head of the coffin,
swart, compact, grim-visaged, with lips quivering with
emotion, he was considered to be in his place as chief
representative of the policy of the dead man before him.
Now arose severe criticisms upon the terms granted to
Johnston by Sherman, who had carried out, as Grant well
knew, the spirit of the martyred President. Sherman's
terms to Johnston were plainly marked, " Provisional," and
were subject to the approval of the government ; but " they
came a week too late or a month too early." They came
to Washington at a time when the War Department was
disposed to be very severe. In the wild rage and bitter
ness which followed the assassination, Stanton seemed to
forget the mighty work which this man Sherman had done
for the nation, and fell upon him with the severest public
condemnation, going so far as to accuse him of treason —
of exceeding his authority because of his sympathy with
the South.
Sherman, not having Grant's self- repressive and patient
character, hotly replied to his critics, thereby increasing
their clamor. Stanton made public matters which were
departmental secrets, in order to strengthen his case.
General Grant took Sherman's part, and when he took a
man's part it meant something. His face flushed and his
hands clenched as he read Stanton's public censure of
Sherman. "It is infamous — infamous!" he said. He
insisted that Sherman be allowed to explain, that it was
unsafe to condemn a man upon so brief a report, especially
a man like Sherman.
318 LIFE OF GRANT
The department ordered General Grant to proceed to
the front and take charge of Sherman's army and the
negotiations for surrender with Johnston, and so it hap
pened that while the mighty funeral pageant of Lincoln
was winding its slow way to the West, Grant started
secretly to the front, and came suddenly and unexpectedly
into Sherman's camp at Raleigh.
The lamentations and forebodings of the army over the
death of Lincoln and its effect upon the nation gave place
to confidence and joy when they knew their old com
mander was among them. A review was in progress, and
a hasty change was made in order that the splendid col
umns of the old Seventeenth Army-Corps might pass be
fore the " old man." It contained McPherson's veterans,
and Grant held it in peculiar regard. He could hardly
speak of the untimely death of its brilliant young com
mander even then without tears. The whole army broke
out in cheers and rejoicing wherever Grant appeared.
Though sent by the War Department to assume di
rection of Sherman's affairs, the chief kept in the back
ground, and did not allow General Johnston to know of
his presence till Sherman had conducted the terms of sur
render to a finish. Grant loved Sherman above even
Sheridan, and would have resigned his commission rather
than humiliate him. To the army he was only a visitor ;
to Sherman he was a friend, and the gentlest and most
considerate superior officer ever sent on an errand of re
proof. It cooled Sherman's hot heart and moistened his
eyes with tears to be met in such gentle and considerate
manner.
Leaving orders for the army under Sherman to set their
faces on a long homeward march, Grant returned to Wash
ington, where his presence was sorely needed in the mul
titudinous duties incident upon the disbanding of the
armies and the closing up of the army contracts and requisi
tions. He was warned of his personal danger, but gave
little heed to it. He came and went quietly and without
guard, and his sturdy figure and grave, intent face were
always welcome sights to the citizens. The whole nation
felt easier to know he was again at headquarters. Later
THE GRAND REVIEW 319
developments with regard to General Sherman's case
proved conclusively that Grant was right. Sherman had
not betrayed his trust in the provisional treaty with Gen
eral Johnston, and was completely vindicated as soon as*
his case was stated.
Soon after he returned, Grant called Sheridan to his
headquarters, and gave him secret instructions to proceed
to Texas, to have an eye on the French forces in Mexico.
" If necessary, I will put you at the head of a corps to join
Juarez, and force Maximilian to withdraw. We cannot
permit the establishment of a monarchy in Mexican soil."
He went so far as to urge upon Johnson the immediate
invasion of Mexico. He hated Napoleon and all he stood
for, and would have swept Maximilian and his forces from
American territory, had not Seward assured him it could
be done by diplomacy. He considered the active coop
eration of the French forces with the Confederate troops
on the Rio Grande a just cause for war.
Just a little over one month after Lincoln's death, on the
seventeenth day of May, an order for a grand review was
sent out by the adjutant-general. The last gun had been
fired far out on the Rio Grande ; Grant's troops were
moving on Washington now, peacefully sweeping across
Virginia, singing songs of God's country, longing to see
the dome of the Capitol loom up in the Northern skies.
No words, nothing but song, could utter the exultation of
their hearts. The war was over, it was spring, and they
were going home — home to wives and sweethearts and
gray-haired fathers and mothers, home to square meals,
and beds, and familiar hills and brooks and meadows ; so
they marched on, well-nigh mad with impatience at delay.
The armies of Sheridan and Meade were already camped
beside the Potomac, and soon Sherman's men would be
there.
Meanwhile in Washington the people were planning for
the great day. Train-loads of the relatives of the soldiers
began to pour into the city and to swarm out to the
encampment. Every hotel was filled even to the corridors
with cot-beds and mattresses, and there were homeless
enthusiasts who hired street-cars in which to sit out the
320 LIFE OF GRANT
night. The newspapers teemed with descriptions of the
camp, of the bugle-calls, the drum-beats, the rumbling of
cannon, the movement of commissary wagons, and all the
complex and picturesque accompaniments of an enormous
army. Parallels were adduced. This army assembling
for review, said the correspondents, was greater than
Napoleon's, Cromwell's, and Caesar's combined. Crom
well's armies would scarcely make a detail of Sherman's
command, and Caesar's forces when he conquered the
world were less than one wing of the Army of the
Potomac.
In the midst of all this mighty preparation, this move
ment of cannon and cavalry, in the midst of galloping
aides and superbly mounted generals and colonels and
their aides, the chief was hardly to be seen. He sat in
his office, bent above papers, figures, calculations, and
reports, planning the reorganization of the army and the
redistribution of troops in the South and West. He was
like a great merchant absorbed in daily duties, and no one
seemed to have less part in the pageantry preparing than
General Grant.
The twenty-third day of May dawned in clouds, but
cleared away into a beautiful day before the hour set for
the review. The trees were heavy with leaf, the sun warm,
the blue sky filled with rolling fragments of clouds. Be
fore the White House a reviewing-stand had been erected,
and thereon President Johnson and his party took their
place just before nine o'clock. The President sat in the
center. On his right sat General Grant and Secretary
Stanton, and on his left were places reserved for Generals
Sherman, Meade, and other officers of high rank. Around
were billows of ladies in the voluminous hoop-skirts of the
time, and flocks of pantaletted little girls, and droves of
small boys in caps and soldier blouses. Flags fluttered
everywhere like leaves of the aspen, and the buzzing of
eager tongues, steadily increasing, voiced the impatience
of the throng: "Are they coming? Are they coming?
They must be delayed."
No ; this was a military parade. At exactly nine
o'clock a single cannon-shot boomed from some far place,
THE GRAND REVIEW 321
and down the winding avenue from the Capitol came the
broad river of blue and steel. It was the Army of the
Potomac, with General Meade at its head. The escort of
cavalry, seven miles in length, preceded the infantry
corps. Sheridan was not there, — he was already on his
way to the Mexican border, — but General Merritt, who
led them, was cheered warmly by the throng. The troops
were worn and dusty and dingy, their faces bronzed by
the wind and sun. For nearly two hours these swift and
powerful warriors swept by the reviewing-stand, and as
each regimental color came opposite him General Grant
arose and saluted, and every cavalryman's eyes sought
out the face of the commander whose word had been his
absolute law for the last year.
The Ninth Corps of Infantry followed, under command
of General John G. Parke. The columns filled the street
— " a Niagara of men," streaming by endlessly, their worn
and tattered battle-flags calling for a cheer for the dead
as well as for the living. They came at " right shoulder
shift" in cadenced step; and as they passed the chief
their burnished muskets leaped to " present," and with
" eyes left " they passed the stand, many of them looking
for the last time upon their great commander. The Fifth
Corps followed, led by General Griffin, marching in similar
form, streaming by, hour after hour, till the Army of the
Potomac, eighty thousand strong, had marched on from
war to peace.
On the next day the " heroes of the West " took up
their triumphant march before the President and the man
of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. The interest in
these men of the West was intense. They were already
storied. They came from strange, far countries, these
tall, grim, dingy, ragged, war-worn soldiers of Sherman's
command ; they came from the wonderful new States of
Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and from
the older States of Indiana and Ohio. Most of them had
marched three thousand miles ; some of them were said to
have carried muskets seven thousand miles. They had
desolated the Confederacy; they had forced every rebel
flag to lower before their faces; and now they came to
322 LIFE OF GRANT
see the capital of their country for the first time, and to
enjoy the applause of their friends.
General Sherman himself led his hosts, erect, sinewy,
bronzed of skin, and restless and haughty of eye. He
had the poise and action of an eagle about to take wing.
His face expressed pride and pleasure, but more of
aggressive combativeness was there. He had not for
gotten the insults and injuries placed upon him by the
War Department at a time when its secretary should
have been most grateful.
Beside him rode General Howard, with one empty sleeve
pinned to his breast. General Logan, who had been with
Grant almost from the first, followed on a magnificent horse,
his long black hair and sweeping mustache realizing the
Eastern ideal of the Western commander. General Hooker
(" Fighting Joe "), General Corse, and other worn yet
jubilant leaders followed.
The rank and file were not so well dressed as the Army
of the Potomac. They marched with long, loping step,
not so finely military, but which was as characteristic of
their wide marches as the faded and dusty uniforms they
wore. The artillery passed by batteries, six guns abreast,
and the heavy jar and sullen rattle of the ponderous car
riages made the pavements tremble. The ambulances were
worn, and had many marks of hard service and long journeys.
The old blood-stained stretchers, upon which the wounded
had been carried to the rear from the battle-fields of the
far West, were carried in the line as if for immediate use.
Sherman's " bummers " were there, leading all sorts of
animals packed with all sorts of articles to illustrate the
foraging which was a part of their great campaign. Old
mules, jackasses, and broken-down horses carried goats,
sheep, pigs, fowl, and camp utensils, to the mighty amuse
ment of the people along the way. The men moved, not
as an army under review, but as an army on the march.
As the guns passed the President's stand, the horses were
put into the gallop, and retired in a cloud of dust with a
clamor of hoofs and a roar of wheels that shook the earth,
giving a still further suggestion of the scenes through
which they had passed.
C THE GRAND REVIEW 323
In comparison with the Army of the Potomac, these
Western men looked hard. " They were dingy, as if the
smoke of many battles had dyed their garments, and the
dust and mud of a dozen States had stained and faded
them. Their wool hats, well worn and dirty, gave them
a most somber coloring. The weather-beaten condition
of the whole army was brought out mercilessly by the
unclouded splendor of the sun. There was a look almost
fierce and sullen on nearly every face. There was a
rigidity of jaw and straightforward scornfulness of eye in
every rank that no observer could fail to mark. The great
gloomy masses marched as if in silent contempt of all such
display, with a bitter, businesslike scowl, as if they might
be going into battle."
These were they who had brought victory at times
when victory was most needed. These men, under Grant,
had won Vicksburg when the nation despaired, and with
them Grant and Sherman had disenthralled Chattanooga
when an invasion seemed to threaten. Under Sherman,
they had taken Atlanta, and helped to elect Abraham
Lincoln. They were opportune ; they had always arrived
at the critical time. Well might their shoulders stoop and
their uniforms grow yellow and wrinkled. One cannot
carry trunks and extra uniforms on raids whose circuit is
five thousand miles.
All day on the 23d and all day on the 24th Grant sat
at the President's side, watching his soldiers pass. He
seemed entirely unconscious that he was the center of
almost hysterical interest. He seemed conscious only
that his boys were passing by. Every time he rose to
salute the regimental flags, cheers uplifted like sudden
bursts of music from an orchestra under signal of a leader's
wand. His keen eyes studied every detail of the passing
men. He wished to know the condition, not only of the
commanders, but of the files. None knew so well as he
what these soldiers were. He had been one of them.
They were his neighbors, he had been their colonel and
brigadier-general and major-general, and the intensity of
his scrutiny seemed to indicate that he was looking for
the men who had gained his attention and regard during
324 LIFE OF GRANT
those early days in the West. During the whole review
the expression of his face was grave, almost sad.
It meant much to him, this pageant of his old command.
McPherson should have been there, and Ransom and Smith
and many another brave man of lesser rank, to make the
chief smile. He seldom spoke to any one, even to the
officers of his staff, except in recognition of some favored
regiment whose tattered colors waved while the "boys"
broke into sudden convulsive shouts at sight of their old
commander. The Twenty-first Illinois should have been
there. They could have borne witness to the hard trials
of Colonel Grant when struggling for an opportunity to
serve his country as the commander of a regiment, just
four years before.
Only once did the general allow the people more than
a glimpse of him during this review. On the evening of
the first day he mounted his horse and rode down the
avenue. It was a business trip, and not intended in the
least as a participation in the display ; but it afforded
the people an opportunity to see the general of the armies.
As he rose to his saddle he seemed to be transfigured.
From the compact, inert, and meditative man, he became
the man who had pursued Lee pitilessly from Petersburg
to Appomattox, who could ride all day and sleep on the
ground at night, who had sent his army whirling against
Jackson, only to turn and face Pemberton the next day at
Champion's Hill. Here was the " man on horseback."
His horse shone like burnished bronze ; his uniform was
new and well fitting and in perfect order ; his new sugar-
loaf hat added to his stature ; and his gloved hands held
the bridle-reins with the careless ease of a born horseman.
He was in the prime of his life, and on the topmost pin
nacle of martial fame.
The crowds broke into thunders of greeting as he swept
by at a swift gallop, and the noise of their shouting
announced his coming a half-mile in advance down the
avenue. For the first time the people of Washington had
seen General Grant, the soldier, as his men knew him on
the field of battle.
CHAPTER XXXVII
GRANT PROTECTS HIS CONQUERED FOES
HAVING sent Sheridan to take care of things on the
Mexican border, and having seen the volunteer
armies begin to disband and take their way homeward,*
the general permitted himself a short furlough. He was
weary of war and all the signs and signals of war. He
was eager to escape the sight of uniforms and great crowds.
The commandant at West Point having invited him to be
present at the close of the academic year, he consented,
and on the way visited New York City, and permitted
himself to be lionized a bit, for the first time.
Nothing in human history surpasses the vivid contrast
between the arrival of the penniless and despondent ex-
captain in 1854, and the return of General Grant, whose
fame had gone around the world. In those earlier days the
city knew no more of him than of one of its street scaven
gers. He was considered a bit of human driftwood. Now
no cannon was loud enough of mouth to bid him welcome.
The city swarmed upon him with a weight of numbers
which threatened to crush the life out of his body.
" Grant! Grant! Grant!" were the words which ran from
lip to lip and from street to street. The whole populace
roared a welcome. From the moment he landed from the
train, multitudes attended his steps, calling for a speech at
every street corner; but he only bowed and smiled, and,
uttering not one word, marched straight ahead with the
air of being only a part of the crowd itself.
* The plan by which the troops were mustered out was drawn by General
Thomas M. Vincent.
325
326 LIFE OF GRANT
At the Astor House, the same hotel where Simon
Buckner had saved him from eviction ten years before,
he now received the officials of the city and the throngs
of prominent citizens crowding to greet him. Fifteen
thousand people passed by him and shook his hand. He
bore up under this as long as possible, although it became
an intolerable burden. When some one asked him why
he did not change hands, he replied : " Because I want
one hand in good condition." He met every admiring
remark with a modest reply. He took no undue credit
to himself, and thought only of the pleasure of others.
He said : " I wish I could stay longer in New York ; I
should like to gratify those who wish to see me."
Among these thousands of people there were not want
ing some who said : " I greet you as our next President " ;
but to such indiscreet ones he replied in no wise, not so
much as by the movement of an eyelash. To one lady
who asked after his health he said dryly : " It is not very
good, but I can ride all day on horseback and sleep all
night on the ground very easily."
At a great meeting which developed spontaneously in
the street before his hotel, nearly twenty thousand people
lifted their voices in irresistible uproar for " Grant !
Speech!" But when he appeared, the upturned faces,
waving hats, and tossing arms of the throng seemed almost
to scare him. He refused to speak.
General Logan took his place, and in alluding to his
chief said : " He is now first in war, first in peace, first in
the hearts of his countrymen"; and Senator Chandler,
who followed, added : " We are assembled to do honor
to the Wellington of the nineteenth century, I heard this
man, in the spring of 1864, say to Abraham Lincoln : ' My
objective point is Lee's army, and I inform you that there
shall be neither truce nor peace nor rest until the army of
General Lee or my army is destroyed.' ' And lifting his
voice with tremendous energy, Senator Chandler then said :
" Fellow-citizens, General Grant fought it out on that
line!" And the answering thunder of the crowd below
said " Amen " to it.
On the same evening a monster meeting in his honor
GRANT PROTECTS HIS CONQUERED FOES 327
was held in Cooper Union, and the audience waited hours
for him to appear. He came at last, bearing no sign of
military rank beyond a few brass buttons on his coat, and
while the audience shouted itself breathless, he bowed and
smiled with a quizzical look about his eyes. Without a
shade of vanity, he consented to stand upon a chair, that
all might see him. " No picture can denote the extreme
modesty of demeanor," said one of the papers, " or the
quiet, natural gentleness which characterizes every move
ment. He would be the last man in the world whom the
casual observer would point out as a great general ; but
his clear blue eyes, high forehead, and determined look
speak plainly of his innate greatness."
Escaping from the endless processions of people, he
passed on to West Point, which he had not seen since he
left it a brevet second lieutenant with high hopes of being
a professor of mathematics in some Western college. He
returned filling a position which had not been held since
Washington's death. General Scott, the oldest living
general of the United States armies, received him in his
most resplendent undress uniform — a coat of blue, with
lapels of yellow silk, and yellow buttons. His head was
uncovered, and his white hair was peculiarly impressive.
It was an unforgetable meeting — the gigantic old man,
so venerable, yet so soldierly of mien, representing the
military tactics of the past, greeting the simple and plain
Grant, who represented what might be called the school
of " common-sense war," and who seemed so small beside
the famous veteran's heroic bulk.
General Grant felt a curious return of his old-time awe
and admiration of General Scott, as well as of the pro
fessors and commanders of the academy, and it added a
captivating shyness to his reserve.
From West Point he went to Chicago, in accordance
with a promise he had made to attend a fair which was
being held in the interest of the Sanitary Commission.
At every point along the railway crowds gathered to see
him pass. Everywhere the gratitude and love of the
people flamed forth in greeting. It was a revealing and
memorable journey to him. It made him suddenly aware
328 LIFE OF GRANT
of the deep hold he had won upon the hearts of his coun
trymen. In the face of such demonstrations as these the
words of his critics had no force.
Chicago was a repetition of New York in its outpouring
of enthusiasm. All that a grateful people could do they
did. They ran at his carriage-wheels. They hurrahed
themselves hoarse. They blared at him with bands, and
assaulted him with fervid orations. Mounted on " old
Jack," the clay-bank war-horse who bore him to the field
at Donelson, he made his way up the street in the pro
cession, while the whole city, apparently, gathered on the
sidewalks to see him pass. He was without spurs, and
old Jack, grown deliberate with years and many wars,
took his own time, which added to the general's embarrass
ment and to the delight of the cheering multitudes.
At a great meeting in the fair building he was again
besought to make a speech, and again the people were
astonished to find that the " silent general " was in reality
silent. He said : " Ladies and gentlemen, I never made a
speech myself, and therefore I will ask Governor Yates of
Illinois to convey to you the thanks which I should fail to
express." Immense and continued cheers and laughter
followed this unexpectedly short speech of the general.
Governor Yates then came forward and spoke for him.
He felt ill prepared, he said, but confessed it to be the
happiest moment of his life. " Some four years ago, as
you will see in a Vicksburg paper, it was announced that
a certain Captain Grant had reported nine hundred rusty
muskets on hand in the State of Illinois for the defense of
the government of the United States. But before two
years had elapsed that same captain stood under the Grant
and Pemberton tree, smoking his cigar, while the stars
and stripes floated over Vicksburg. I have often said
before what I am proud to say now : these fingers " — hold
ing up his hand — " signed the colonel's commission of the
world's greatest commander. I did n't know he was to
become so great a man then, or I might have been a little
more complimentary." This provoked a burst of appre
ciative laughter.
Major- General Sherman, being loudly called for, came
GRANT PROTECTS HIS CONQUERED FOES 329
forward and said : " I am here to-day as a mere visitor,
and cannot be long-drawn into any speech whatever.
Always ready, always willing, always proud to back my
old commander-in-chief, I will do anything in the world
which he asks me to do. I know he will not ask me to
make a speech."
General Grant, being thus appealed to, replied : " I
never ask a soldier to do anything that I cannot do my
self"; and amid the laughter of the crowd the generals
withdrew.
All this was a very pleasant escape from contention and
thought of war, and Grant would gladly have prolonged
his furlough had he not known that his presence was im
peratively needed in Washington. At the end of less than
two weeks' respite he returned to headquarters, and en
tered at once upon a contest with the President and cabi
net, who had determined to arrest Generals Lee and
Johnston on a charge of treason. This General Grant set
himself at once to prevent.
From Raleigh, as early as the 26th of April, he had
written a letter to his wife which showed that not even
the murder of Lincoln had changed his sorrowful tender
ness toward the Southern people :
The people are anxious to see peace restored. The suffering
that must exist in the South, even with the war ending now, will
be beyond conception. People who talk of further retaliation
and punishment, except of political leaders, either do not con
ceive of the suffering endured already, or they are heartless and
unfeeling, and wish to stay at home out of danger while the
punishment is being inflicted.
It was a singular condition which made this great war
rior, who had sent armies crashing through and across the
Confederacy, devouring wealth, destroying lines of trans
portation, and starving out armies, now the friend and
protector of the surrendered people; yet this was the
next development in the astounding career of Ulysses
Grant.
Here again was seen the far-reaching significance of
the life he had lived. All things had tended to make him
330 LIFE OF GRANT
the man to rebuild the nation. His early life in a town
half South, half North, his association with Southern men
at West Point and in the regular army, his marriage with
a Southern woman, his life in St. Louis — in short, till
nearly forty years of age his way of life had led him among
men of strong Southern sentiment, and being a man of
naturally mild and gentle character, he had gone into the
war without hate, and had conquered without malignity.
He was not an extremist. From the very day of Lee's
surrender he began to pacificate and to heal. Every
word, every act, was kindly and considerate, although he
was never weak or palliative.
In the few days which elapsed between Appomattox
and the death of Lincoln the North was in jubilant and
magnanimous mood ; but after the assassination many
men high in office grew bitter and revengeful. Men who
had clapped their hands in consent of the generous terms
granted to Lee began to grumble sullenly, and there were
those in the White House who demanded the arrest and
trial of all the leaders of the rebel army.
Abraham Lincoln's untimely death brought into the
Presidential chair Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a man
who had been actively loyal at a time when loyal men in
Tennessee were^much to be desired. He had been put on
the ticket with Lincoln for good political reasons, and up
to this moment was very well regarded. He, too, was
self-made. He had climbed from the tailor's bench to the
governorship of Tennessee in 1853, and was afterward
reflected. In 1857 he had been made United States
senator, and in 1862 appointed military governor of Ten
nessee, and had discharged his duties faithfully and well.
He was called by a London paper " a very determined, a
very original, and it may be a very dangerous, but un
questionably a very powerful man."
He was a man of the ranks, and he hated the aristo
cratic tendencies of the South. His sudden accession to
power set his head whirling, and his first resolution was
"to make treason odious" — to punish the Southern
leaders, to let them feel the weight of his hand. He dis
approved of the magnanimous terms which Grant had
GRANT PROTECTS HIS CONQUERED FOES 331
written out for Lee. Davis had been apprehended, and
was in prison ; but General Lee, still relying upon General
Grant's parole, was living quietly at home. Him Johnson
and his cabinet threatened to arrest and try for treason.
General Lee, hearing of this, appealed to General Grant,
through a friend, in order to be assured of his safety from
imprisonment or death. He wrote :
Upon reading the President's proclamation on the 29th, I came
to Richmond to ascertain what was proper or required of me to
do, when I learned, that with others, I was to be indicted for
treason by the grand jury at Norfolk. I had supposed that the
officers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia were by the
terms of the surrender protected by the United States govern
ment from molestation so long as they conformed to its condi
tions. I am ready to meet any charges that may be preferred
against me ; I do not wish to waive trial ; but if I am correct as
to the protection granted by my parole, and I am not to be
prosecuted, I desire to comply with the provisions of the Presi
dent's proclamation, and therefore inclose the required applica
tion, which I request, in that event, may be acted upon.
To this Grant replied :
Your communication has been received and forwarded to the
Secretary of War, with the following opinion indorsed thereon by
me : " In my opinion, the officers and men paroled at Appo-
mattox Court-house, and since upon the same terms given to Lee,
cannot be tried for treason so long as they observe the terms of
their parole. This is my understanding. Good faith as well as
true policy dictates that we should observe the conditions of
that convention. Bad faith on the part of the government, or a
construction of that convention subjecting the officers to trial for
treason, would produce a feeling of insecurity in the minds of all
the paroled officers and men. If so disposed, they might even
regard such an infraction of terms by the government as an
entire release from all obligations on their part. I will state
further that the terms granted by me met the hearty approval of
the President at the time and of the country generally. The
action of Judge Underwood in Norfolk has already had an in
jurious effect, and I would ask that he be ordered to quash all
indictments found against paroled prisoners of war, and to desist
from the further prosecution of them."
332 LIFE OF GRANT
I have forwarded your application for amnesty and pardon to
the President, with the following indorsement :
" Respectfully forwarded, through the Secretary of War, to the
President, with the earnest recommendation that this application
of General R. E. Lee for amnesty and pardon be granted him ! "
Certainly nothing could be franker, manlier, or more
generous than this, but General Grant's protest did not
end there. He followed the matter to the cabinet-room,
and there took a firm stand. " The people of the North
do not wish to inflict torture upon the people of the
South," he said.
The President was still determined that these men
should be punished. " I will make treason odious," he
said. " When can these men be tried? "
" Never," replied Grant, with the most inflexible deci
sion, — " never, unless they violate their parole."
Johnson persisted in the contention. " I would like to
know," he said sneeringly, " by what right a military
commander interferes to protect an arch-traitor from the
laws."
This made Grant extremely angry, and he spoke with
great earnestness and with the utmost plainness. He
said:
" As general it is none of my business what you or
Congress do with General Lee or other commanders.
You may do as you please about civil rights, confiscation
of property ; that does not come into my province. But
a general commanding troops has certain responsibilities
and duties and powers which are supreme. He must deal
with the enemy in front of him, so as to destroy him ; he
may either kill him, capture him, or parole him. His
engagements are secret so far as they lead to the destruc
tion of the foe. I have made certain terms with Lee —
the best and only terms. If I had told him and his army
that their liberty would be invaded, that they would be
open to arrest, trial, and execution for treason, Lee would
have never surrendered, and we should have lost many
lives in destroying him. Now, my terms of surrender
were according to military law, and so long as General
GRANT PROTECTS HIS CONQUERED FOES 333
Lee observed his parole I will never consent to his arrest
I will resign the command of the army rather than execute
any order directing me to arrest Lee or any of his com
manders so long as they obey the laws."
Upon the rock of his inflexible resolution the rage of
the President broke without effect. He had met a man
he could neither wheedle nor intimidate. He knew some
thing of the position to which General Grant had attained.
If he did not fear him personally, he feared the people,
whose love he held and whose will he represented. The
indictments against Generals Lee and Johnston were
dropped and never again referred to.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE GENERAL TAKES A SUMMER VACATION
AS the hot weather came on the chief felt the necessity
JL\. of taking a genuine vacation. His trip to Chicago
had not been long enough to afford him the change and
relief he needed. Early in July, therefore, he set out on
a long journey to the North and East.
He arrived in Boston on Saturday, the last day of July,
and was received with the same fervor of admiration which
had greeted him in every city in the North. He spent a
quiet Sunday, attending church at the Old South Meeting
house with Mrs. Grant, and received a few callers. On
Monday at noon a great demonstration was given him at
historical Faneuil Hall. The sanded floor was packed,
and the gallery filled to its utmost capacity, and thousands
were compelled to wait without, unable to gain admit
tance.
The enthusiasm of the large audience broke forth in
prolonged cheering as the great commander appeared, and
continued for five minutes before quiet was restored. The
general, with eyes twinkling with good nature, walked up
and down the platform, that the audience might see him.
The mayor, in introducing him, said : " If our lips had
been dumb, these very walls would have reproached us,
and these pictured forms would have rushed from their
canvases to bid General Grant welcome to Faneuil Hall."
The general refused to make a speech in reply, but con
sented to shake hands for an hour.
The next morning he took the train for Portland, and
rode out of the city of Boston standing upon the rear
334
THE GENERAL TAKES A SUMMER VACATION 335
platform, and bowing his acknowledgments to the immense
crowds gathered to say good-by. In Portland he was
received by the city government and a large escort of
soldiers and civilians. His greeting was as hearty as in
any other city in which he had been seen. At Brunswick
he was received by the officers and students of Bowdoin
College. He attended the closing exercises of the com
mencement at the church, where the degree of LL. D.
was conferred upon him. But not even this honor could
extract from him a speech.
On Thursday, August 3, he visited Augusta. The
governor welcomed him most cordially, and the general
responded with most eloquent silence. That night he
returned again to Portland, and at twenty minutes past
one the next day started for Quebec. As the news of his
trip got abroad in the land, it was conceived by certain
shrewd minds to have a very deeply hidden significance.
It was hinted that Grant was studying the defenses of
Canada, and that it foreboded some international entan
glement.
In Quebec he dined with the governor-general, and met
the admiral of the English navy, who had just arrived
with two war- vessels. From Quebec he proceeded to
Montreal and Toronto by special train. He reentered the
Union at Detroit, where he met with one of the most
hearty and informal receptions of his entire trip, for here
he had many old friends and acquaintances.
He arrived on Saturday, August 12, and remained until
Tuesday, the 1 5th. Here, as everywhere, he had scarcely
a minute of time to himself. Every one wished to see
him and to touch his hand. " The excitement on the
street approached closely to wildness." Jefferson Avenue,
through which he used to drive with his little Cicotte
mare, was now densely packed with human beings, every
face eagerly turned to catch sight of him. The formal
reception took place in front of his hotel, in the presence
of at least seven thousand people. The Hon. Theodore
Romaeyne made a speech of welcome. Among other
things, he said :
" You, sir, were always seen as a simple soldier, intent
336 LIFE OF GRANT
on doing good duty as such. Your calm courage, your
military skill, were understood and appreciated by your
countrymen. They learned to look to you as the seaman
looks to the polar star beyond the drift and shadow of the
clouds, shining on in quiet and steady splendor. We knew
that under your leadership the defeat and capture of Lee's
army were mere questions of time."
The answer to all of this music, oratory, and huzzahing
was given by the general in these words : " Gentlemen, I
bid you all good night."
There were, of course, humorous incidents in all these
receptions. It was impossible for the general to cross the
corridors of the hotels without finding his way blocked by
inquisitive admirers. When he put his boots out into the
hall to be blacked, they were carried off as mementos.
In every way that could be imagined the people expressed
their love, admiration, and curiosity for a man who, if left
to himself, would have been glad to pass through without
the slightest fuss or display. In Canada his simplicity
and uniform courtesy were much commented upon. He
passed through Chicago as quietly as possible, and reached
Galena eager for rest.
The return of the leather-clerk marks an epoch in the
history of Galena. A little more than four years had passed
since he fell in behind Captain Chetlain's company, lean
carpet-bag in hand, unnoticed except by a few boys. Now
cannon boomed welcome, bands were playing, the whole
State and part of Wisconsin and Iowa seemed there to meet
him, and the town was gay with flags and flowers and tri
umphal arches. Rawlins, the " charcoal-burner," was there
with him as his chief of staff. Rowley, the clerk who had
helped him tack the leather cover on the court-house table,
was General Rowley, home on a furlough, and eager to
welcome his old commander. Chetlain was a brigadier,
and so was J. E. Smith. But there were many others who
had not returned from the war, brave men whom Grant
would have delighted to honor.
The Hon. E. B. Washburne, beaming with pride and
satisfaction, made the speech of welcome, while Editor
Houghton of the " Gazette," the man who earliest pre-
THE GENERAL TAKES A SUiMMER VACATION 337
dieted Captain Grant's high command, kept modestly in
the background with recording pencil in hand.
The people had erected two great arches over the prin
cipal street, on one of which the names of his great bat
tles had been written, while on another were these words :
"General, the sidewalk is built." Once, in 1864, when
somebody had mentioned the possibility of his candidacy
for the Presidency, he had replied : " I am not a candidate
for any office, but I would like to be mayor of Galena long
enough to fix the sidewalks, especially the one reaching to
my house." The people had not only built the new side
walk, but a new house at the end of it, where dinner was
at that moment waiting him. It was a home, completely
furnished, and ready for immediate possession.
The streets were filled with the plain people of the
prairies and coulees round about, and as his carriage
moved slowly past the little leather-store in which he had
sold bristles and straps in 1861, the applause took on a
singular note. Every mind was filled with the wonder of
this man's achievement in four short years; every hand
was eager to clasp his, every eye hungry to look into his
face. When he lived there, four years before, scarcely a
score of his townspeople knew him. Now the civilized
world knew him. It was as mysterious as any tale of the
" Arabian Nights." Had he been slain with Abraham Lin
coln, he would have been a myth — a mysterious, epic fig
ure like Charlemagne. Now here he was before them,
just as unassuming as when he walked their streets four
years before ; and, with the perversity of those who do not
easily grant greatness to others, they fell back in disap
pointment. His presence did not aid to make his deeds
conceivable.
At the new house all the most influential ladies of the
town were gathered, ready to serve him and his family
with a Western dinner. Mr. McClellan — he who had en
couraged him to stay in Springfield during those almost
hopeless days of seeking — made the little speech present
ing the house. Having occasion to turn to him in the
midst of some oratorical figure, the speaker was amazed
and deeply moved to see the tears coursing down the
338 LIFE OF GRANT
general's cheeks, while his lips were quivering. He could
scarcely reply. No honor ever tendered him affected him
more deeply than this little ceremony on the part of the
citizens of Galena. He was a man of the deepest affec
tions, and had a singular love for localities in which he had
lived. He remembered every place with tenderness, even
Sacket's Harbor and Humboldt Bay, the scenes of his
profitless barrack life ; and to him Galena, and the people
of Galena, were very dear.
He went forth in the days that followed, walking about
the streets and entering the stores and offices like any
other citizen. He responded to every greeting unhesitat
ingly and cordially. He shook hands with the men who
drove the drays for the Grant firm in 1861. He spent
long hours in the humble offices of his friends Rowley and
Washburne. He enjoyed more deeply than any civilian
can know the peace and the democracy of this little town.
On Sunday he walked down to the little church with Mrs.
Grant, and sat in the little bare board pew they had occu
pied four years before. It put the war far off, and brought
the thrift, buoyancy, and democracy of the West very near
to him. These live, liberal, and loyal citizens were his
own type of men. His state of mind is clearly indicated
by his reply to a friend who asked him if he were not
going to a certain review of veterans. " No," he said
decidedly ; " I don't want to see another uniform as long
as I live."
He spent several weeks in Galena, enjoying to the full
its remoteness from war and politics. But the time came
when it became necessary for him to start eastward. His
presence was again demanded in Washington. At the
station, while he was waiting for the train, he made one
of his characteristically dry remarks. Calling the atten
tion of a friend to an enormous truck-load of trunks, he
said : " Do you see that pile of baggage ? Well, that is
the Grant baggage. Do you see that little black valise
away up on top? That 's mine."
On his way back to Washington, he stopped at Cincin
nati and Covington to see his father and mother. Here,
again, the men who knew of his sorrowful return in 1854
THE GENERAL TAKES A SUMMER VACATION 339
met him with a feeling of awe. Try as they might, they
could not understand the mystery.
He consented here to more receptions, and in these
receptions his marvelous memory of faces began to be
observed. Every man who had ever looked into his face,
even for a moment, was remembered. To the most of
those who passed he said nothing. He responded to
no praise or prophecy. But if a little girl said, " I am
Lily, Lucy Smith's daughter," he checked the whole
line while he talked with her about her mother. Or if
some humble citizen from Georgetown or Ripley said to
him, " General, I used to know your folks," his face
lighted up at once, and he returned the man's grip with
cordial interest.
Uncle Jesse was glorified by his son's presence, and
made the general uncomfortable by his grossly evident
pride and pleasure. All the dark past was forgotten
now ; the sad days of his son's defeats eleven years before
were as though they had never been. The mother, how
ever, received Ulysses with unchanged manner. Nothing
seemed to surprise her. His victories she accepted as
matters of natural course, and she went about the house
with the calm, unhurried step which had never varied from
year to year. For all her mask of face, she was very
proud of her boy.
The general took a team, one morning, and started to
drive quietly to Bethel, some twenty miles away. But
the people of his old homes in Brown and Clermont counties
were astir. They got together, and hastily appointed a
committee of prominent citizens to ride out and meet the
illustrious soldier. After riding some miles on the road
without seeing any signs of the general's party, they con
cluded he must have taken another road.
While discussing this, a smallish, care-worn man came
jogging along the dusty road in a light surrey. To him
they appealed:
" Did you hear anything about General Grant as you
came along? "
"Yes; he 's on the road," replied the stranger, and
drove on.
34° LIFE OF GRANT
After he had passed out of ear-shot, some one said :
"I believe that was Grant himself."
It was, and the deeply disappointed committee trailed
into town behind their visitor. They were looking for a
man in uniform with a glittering cavalcade of aides. They
could not understand how sweet it was to General Grant
to ride out along those familiar fields in fruity September,
a civilian again, without reminder of war. The visit to
West Point had not the deep-laid pleasure he found in this
lonely drive.
The citizens demanded a speech ; but he had no speech
to make. He had no wish to meet crowds ; he wanted to
talk with the neighbors. From Bethel he drove on to
Georgetown in the same fashion, and put up at the very
humble little hotel of the village. Georgetown greeted
him with very marked self-repression. A large number
of the villagers were "peace Democrats," and were not
prepared to throw up their hats for " Ulyss " Grant or any
other Republican. They recalled Grant's dullness when
a boy ; they talked among themselves of his forced resig
nation from the army, and of his reported drinking at
Shiloh and Corinth. There were those who said : " I '11
be d — d if I attend any meeting in his honor."
If the general knew anything of these unplanned criti
cisms, he made no sign of it. He met everybody with
cordial hand-clasp, and threaded the paths which ran
through vacant lots covered with cockle-burs and mullen
stalks to call upon lonely old spinsters who had known his
mother, and whom he remembered very well himself.
He sat in their tiny little parlors, on their worn haircloth
furniture, and ate of their indigestible cake and pie with
ready cheer, and in one or two instances presented old
friends with a big gold piece as a further mark of his
regard. He seemed anxious to meet all the old people,
no matter how surly and crabbed they might be. He had
forgotten all their bad traits, and all their bitter words.
They were all homely and good to him.
He was for the time being a citizen of the village, and
there are not many social distinctions drawn in George
town, even to this day. They considered themselves as
THE GENERAL TAKES A SUMMER VACATION 34!
good as Ulysses Grant, and quite capable of criticizing him
and of giving him good advice. They did not stand in
awe of princes or potentates of any sort, and Grant, in his
dusty hat and cockle-bur-decorated trousers, was not im
posing to them. The world from which he came was all
too far away and its distinction too insubstantial for these
old neighbors occupied with tilling the soil, with daily
duty in shop and office. They could not appreciate the
mighty power to which Ulysses Grant had attained. In
their secret hearts many of them said : " It 's just blind
luck; that is what it is. Circumstances made him. I
could have done the same thing under the same circum
stances."
The demonstration was carried to a reasonable stage, and
the general made a lame little speech, the longest he had
made in all these many receptions and ovations in cities
East and West. He seemed more profoundly touched by
the recognition of his services in Georgetown than by any
other demonstration except that in Galena. He knew
how skeptical all his old neighbors had been. He remem
bered how they had ridiculed his fond old father, and how
they had wagged their heads at his failures. All this he
knew, and, being human, he was glad to be able to dem
onstrate his power and fitness for command, after all.
Returning to Washington in October, he took up his
home on I Street. In doing this he offered to surrender
the house in Philadelphia, which had been given him with
an understanding that he was to live there. But the citi
zens of Philadelphia very sensibly said : " We know you
must live near headquarters, and we release you from all
obligations. The house is yours to use as you please."
As the months passed the certainty that peace had
returned, never to be broken, led the people, North and
South, to turn their almost undivided attention to produc
tion and to trade ; but the politicians began to plan for
the next Presidential campaign, and statesmen in private
gravely grappled with the puzzling questions growing out
of the war. The government debt, the protection and
enfranchisement of the negro, and the policy of recon
struction were the then almost insoluble problems to
342 LIFE OF GRANT
which the lawmakers were forced to address their highest
powers.
The question of who should be President also troubled
a large number of patriots. Every man prominent in war
or politics secretly wished to be President, if he did not
actually set to work to secure the nomination ; Johnson,
Stanton, Seward, Sumner, and a score besides were all
working to that end ; but the " silent general " went about
his duties without regard to fear or favor. His actions
were rigidly non-political, though he had keen politicians
in his family and on his staff. Rawlins began to fill his
ears with disturbing words of political wisdom. It did not
require much prophetic insight on his part to perceive
that his chief was to become a candidate for the Presi
dency. The republic had always honored its great com
manders, from Washington down to Taylor, and Grant,
supreme as warrior, was in the logical line of succession.
But, whatever his own feeling in the matter, he closed his
lips even to his friends. He was a soldier, and waited for
orders.
Johnson well knew all this, and all he did was done
with an eye single to securing the glory to himself. When
Grant's words and acts furthered Johnson's interests,
Johnson used them ; when they did not, he distorted them,
and secretly undermined and discredited his general-in-
chief. When he thought it might please the North, he
cried out: "Treason is odious; punish it"; but when he
saw the possibility of being selected for the Presidency by
the aid of the Southern States, he reversed his policy, and
began to truckle and trade for favor. He granted the
most extraordinary privileges to the conquered States
without the sanction of Congress. He appointed gover
nors, and allowed their legislatures to assemble. He as
serted, also, that when a State acquiesced in the abolition
of slavery, it could send its senators and congressional
delegates to Washington on the same terms as before the
war; and upon these promises and policies of the Presi
dent the South built, notwithstanding the bitter opposi
tion of the majority of Northern people.
The President was eager to keep Grant near him in all
THE GENERAL TAKES A SUMMER VACATION 343
these plans. Congress could not meet until December,
and meanwhile the South was under martial control, and
he, as commander of the army and navy, had the fullest
freedom to work out his plan, which he hoped would make
the South solidly his and please the Democratic party in
the North. Grant apparently acquiesced in this, because
(as he said) he considered some government necessary, and
believed that Congress, when it convened, would either
support or reverse it. He, as a soldier, had nothing to do
with civil politics. Before the 1st of October the Presi
dent had " flopped" completely, and had become as deeply
anxious to pardon the leaders in the Rebellion as he had
been to hang them a few months before.
CHAPTER XXXIX
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION*
IN late November the general, at the request of the
President, made a tour through the South to obtain
a knowledge of the situation at first hand. He visited
Charleston, Augusta, Atlanta, and several other cities. In
some of the towns his presence escaped notice. In
Charleston the papers referred to the demonstration in his
honor as " gloomy " and " thinly attended." In Augusta
they spoke of him as a " diminutive gentleman in black
civilian dress."
In Atlanta, without the knowledge of the citizens, he
took a carriage, and was driven quietly about the streets
through the pelting rain, his slouch-hat drawn over his
brow, studying the city and the people. The few citi
zens hurrying to and fro on that stormy day dismissed
the silent figure in the carnage with a glance. They saw
only a middle-aged man of business, driving about with an
officer of the Union army. His careless attire, his appa
rently listless manner, made him quite inconspicuous.
But when the word was passed that General Grant was
in town, Federal officers, ex-Confederates, Union sympa
thizers, and the unreconstructed, as well, came to talk
with him at his hotel. To one and all he listened with
grave attention. Indignant loyalists told him that the
* In writing this chapter, the author read the newspapers of the time,
selecting three typical examples in the South and four or five in the North.
McPherson's " History of Reconstruction," United States Executive Papers,
Badeau's " Grant in Peace," and the memoirs of Sherman, Sheridan, and
Schofield form the main references.
344
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 345
rebels hated the old flag, and threatened violence to the
Unionists.
" It is natural," was his only reply.
Some wild schemers suggested confiscation, disfranchise-
ment, and military rule. " We don't do that way in
America," he calmly said.
An old man referred feelingly to the bad blood engen
dered by the war.
" It cannot last," said the general. And of this quality
was his report. In it he said : " I am satisfied that the
mass of thinking men in the South accept the present
situation of affairs in good faith."
While he found universal acquiescence in authority, he
thought it well to retain some small garrisons, and rec
ommended that these details be composed entirely of
white troops ; that, under the circumstances, the presence
of black troops would be demoralizing. He conceded that
no thinking man would do violence toward any class of
troops, but that the ignorant might. His conclusions
were that the States were anxious to return to self-gov
ernment, that they wished protection, and that they would
follow out cheerfully any reasonable measure of recon
struction. He passed some criticisms upon the operations
of the Freedmen's Bureau, and in conclusion said: "It
cannot be expected that the opinions held by men of the
South for years can be changed in a day, and therefore
the f reedmen require for a few years not only laws to pro
tect them, but the fostering care of those who will give
them good counsel and upon whom they can rely." His
own suggestion (a very sound and reasonable one) was
that every officer on duty with troops in the South
" should be regarded as an agent of the Freedmen's
Bureau. This would create responsibility and give uni
formity of action throughout the South."
In the country at large the report of General Grant was
taken to be an indorsement and support of the restoration
views of President Johnson, and placed him in opposition
to the party of Congress represented by Wendell Phillips
and Senator Sumner, who called the President's message
a " whitewashing message," and of course the same term
346 LIFE OF GRANT
could be applied, and was applied, to General Grant's
dispassionate report. According to one Southern writer,
its effect was very great.
" It broke the full force of the cruel legislation then in
progress, and the enemies of the South were compelled to
change their attack. Demagogues were powerless when
the man of Appomattox barred their reckless march."
This report brought order out of the chaos of public
opinion. The people of the whole nation ranged them
selves under leadership into two great parties — those who
professed to believe in the policy of the immediate pacifi
cation of the South by the speedy restoration of their local
governments, and those who advocated stringent and un
relenting military control for a few years at least. It was
the war in a new form.
General Grant's report was quoted all over the South
with approval in connection with the President's message.
Johnson was glad of General Grant's unintentional sup
port, and made the most of it. He no longer cared to
emphasize differences between himself and his general.
Within a few months a complete change had come over
his mind. From permitting provisional governments to be
established, he was coming to the point of upholding those
governments, whether by Congress or not. He was a
shrewd man, and an ambitious one. It was perfectly evi
dent at this time that he was reorganizing the country in
such wise as to become the leader of the ultra-liberal fac
tion. He was looking forward to being the Presidential
candidate of a new Democratic party, made up of a union
between the reconstructed South and the Democratic party
of the North.
He protested that he was not himself a candidate. " I
am a Union man," he said. " It is my intention to restore
peace, to build up the South, to liberalize the whole nation."
He claimed to be a friend of the poor and needy. He did
not think it wise or judicious to force suffrage on the
negroes, and in this he had the partial support of General
Grant. " In his haste to restore the Union, however, he
forgot that he was not the government of the United
States. He forgot the necessity of having Congress on
his side, that his acts must have their approval."
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 347
It became apparent at once that his measures were not
approved by a majority of the legal representatives of the
nation, and a bitter and relentless war began between Con
gress and the President. By March of 1866 the drift of
the Executive from magnanimity to leniency had become
so apparent to General Grant that he found it necessary to
begin to emphasize a little more markedly the difference
between the President's plan of reconstruction and his own.
It is probable, also, that Rawlins, Babcock, and others of
the politicians on his staff had produced an effect by harp
ing on the belief that he was to be the irresistible choice
for the Presidency at the end of Johnson's term. This
would have been very natural, and was probably true.
He admitted his aspirations at this time, but said he was
too young to become a candidate in 1868, but might think
of it for 1872.
It was a time which demanded statesmen and men of
high aims and equable temper. The whole country lay
weltering in a chaos of plans and policies. It was a time
for men to be unselfish and purely patriotic. The South
clamored, with a certain justice, to be let alone. " We
understand the negro," its leaders said, " and we will take
care of him and ourselves too. We admit defeat; we
accept the situation ; but we do not wish to have our
affairs managed by outsiders in the interest of an ignorant
and venal race." It was equally natural that the North
should insist on keeping close watch on these States for a
time. They were not prepared to believe that the South
would take care of the negro ; they were quite certain the
South would abuse the negro. They said, in effect : " It
is too much to expect that a conquered people should so
soon recover self-government after so great and bitter a
conflict." They believed that justice would more certainly
be secured if the Northern government should continue
to be represented through its army and the Freedmen's
Bureau, which was organized for the very purpose of
assisting the blacks.
In this matter of opinion General Grant remained of
steadfast mind. He was not impatient ; he was very
hopeful. He did not incline to severer measures, but
rather believed in slowly releasing the military hold on the
348 LIFE OF GRANT
conquered States. He refused to aid any faction by the
presence of troops. He wished only to keep the peace.
On the surface, President Johnson's attitude was wise
and reasonable; but those at the center, being skilled in
political warfare, understood his specious phrases. His
perilous concessions to the South could only make trouble.
General Grant now stood between the President and the
South with a new duty to perform, which was to see that
dangerous concessions were not made, nor the extremists
of the South correspondingly encouraged to treasonable
action.
The President, well knowing his great need of General
Grant's support, honored him above all other men by his
presence. He wrote him familiar, unofficial notes; he
granted him unexpected favors, treating him not merely
as an equal, but as a personal friend. He appeared unex
pectedly at a reception held by the general and Mrs.
Grant, and stood at the general's side, dividing the honors
of the evening. In the country at large this course of
action produced the effect desired by Johnson. General
Grant was believed to be the President's supporter, and
was placed in a very painful position — an almost intoler
able position for a direct and honorable soldier. He was
violently assailed by the press. He was accused of play
ing a double game. He suffered under this most keenly.
Sherman said of him at this time :
" I have been with General Grant in the midst of death
and slaughter; when the howls of people reached him
after Shiloh; when messengers were speeding to and fro
from his army to Washington, bearing slanders to induce
his removal before Vicksburg; in Chattanooga, when the
soldiers were stealing the corn of the starving mules to
satisfy their own hunger; at Nashville, when he was
ordered to the 'forlorn hope,' to command the Army of
the Potomac, so often defeated ; and yet I never saw
him more troubled than since he has been in Washing
ton and been compelled to read himself a ' sneak and
deceiver.' '
It seems impossible that so soon after Appomattox any
reputable citizen could have applied such terms to Gen-
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 349
eral Grant ; but so it was. Such is the desolating power
of political ambition. Grant loomed every day larger as
candidate for the Presidency, and the need of getting him
out of the way, or of discrediting him, became each day
more imperative.
The fundamental problem before Congress was that of
protecting the black man in his rights as a free man, and
of insuring that he should have his proper representation
in the State legislatures and in Congress, without enlar
ging the political power of the Southern white man. All
other differences between the President and the radical
Republicans were of small consequence compared with
this. The President was accused of exceeding his powers
— of going too fast. He was too ready in compliance with
Southern plans.
Johnson, in defending himself, said:
" I came to Washington under extraordinary circum
stances, and succeeded to the Presidential chair. The
Congress of the United States had adjourned without
prescribing any plan. I therefore proceeded in the recon
struction of the government. How did we begin ? We
found that the people had no courts, and we said to the
judges, district attorneys, and marshals : ' Go down and
hold your courts. The people need the tribunals of jus
tice.' Was there anything wrong in that?
" What else? We looked out and saw that the people
down there had no mails, and we said to the Postmaster-
General : ' Let the people have facilities for mail, and let
them again understand what we all feel and think — that
we are one people.
" We looked again, and saw that the custom-houses were
all closed, and we said : ' Open the doors ; remove the
blockade.' And so we traveled on, appointing collectors,
establishing mail routes, and restoring railroads. Was
there anything wrong there ?
" What remained to be done ? One thing more. We
found they were denied representation, and, like our fore
fathers of old, they complained of taxation without repre
sentation. There remains this one thing more : to admit
them to representation, by which we mean representation
350 LIFE OF GRANT
in the constitutional and law-abiding sense which was un
derstood at the beginning of the government.
" Oh, but some one will say : ' A traitor may come in.'
The answer to that is: Each house must be the judge of
it, and if a traitor presents himself, they can kick him out
of doors, and drive him back to the people who sent him,
saying, ' You must elect a loyal man.' '
Upon the mere face of it this position was just and
reasonable ; but the radical Union men saw in such appeal
the possible return to power of the South, and the over
throw of all that they had fought for during the last four
years. General Grant, so far as possible, kept free from
the clash of spears, passing calmly on his way, doing the
South good wherever possible, but never for one moment
releasing his hold upon the military control of the con
quered States.
In the early spring of 1866 there was a notable upwell-
ing of appreciation of his courtesy and kindness on the
part of the South. Speaking upon the text of his reported
release of General C. C. Clay, whom Johnson had ordered
under arrest, in opposition to or in spite of his possession
of a parole, the Atlanta " Intelligencer" said:
" While it is true that to General Grant the South owes
her defeat in her attempt to establish an independent
government, it is also true that at the surrender of General
Lee, and ever since, up to the present time, his conduct
toward the South has been most generous and in individual
cases most magnanimous and just The South owes much
to General Grant, and its press has been too chary and tardy
in its acknowledgment of the favors bestowed by this gen
eral upon the leaders of our armies. We should now make
the amends. History does not make record of greater
magnanimity than that displayed by General Grant to
General Lee and the forces under his command. The
faith plighted by him on the day of Lee's surrender has
been kept inviolate."
This acknowledgment on the part of the "Intelligencer"
was taken up, quoted, and approved by many of the most
influential papers in the South, though even then they did
not realize to the full the service which General Grant had
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 351
rendered them. He had done much more, of which they
knew nothing. Every word that he spoke was to their
good, and his mere presence was a stay and shield against
hasty or malignant action. Too high praise cannot be
given to him for his conduct during this uneasy time. As
he was the leader during the war, so he remained the
leader during reconstruction.
" My views are that district commanders are responsible
for the faithful execution of the Reconstruction Acts of
Congress," the general wrote to General Pope, " but in
civil matters I cannot give them an order ; I can only give
them my views for what they are worth."
His views, so far as they can be read in his orders and
telegrams to the district commander, were sound and con
siderate of civil liberty at every point, without hint of
tyranny. The civil government was interfered with only
when absolutely necessary to preserve the peace. It
would have been criminal to desert the black man at this
point in the war. " The blood of every slain soldier in
the Northern army would have cried ' Shame ! ' to such
indifference." The war, fought primarily to preserve the
Union, had taken on larger significance. It was perceived
to have been a war for the rights of man.
All through the summer of 1866 President Johnson
continued to give utterance to the finest and loftiest prin
ciples. He stood, he said, for the whole Union, and not
a part of it. He stood opposed to the radicalism, ex
pressed by men of the stamp of Sumner in the East and
Logan in the West — men to whom the war was not yet
ended, who could not forgive the South nor trust it.
He still kept, so far as he could, close to the elbow of
General Grant. He was eager to have it known that the
military was on his side, that its chief was his personal
friend and supporter, and throughout the South this con
tinued to be the understanding. The Southern papers,
wherever they alluded to Johnson, now spoke of him as
the " great defender of our rights and liberties," and in
cluded General Grant in their praise.
But underneath there was developing a feeling on the
part of General Grant and those whom he represented that
352 LIFE OF GRANT
the President was more than generous : he was perilously
compliant. The general became disgusted at last with
the President's attempt to use him, and was annoyed by
his familiar notes and unexpected visits. He perceived
the design of this, and rebelled at it. It was only a ques
tion of time before there should come a division between
the general and his chief. The Southern press grew
bolder each day, relying on Johnson and his office-holders.
During September the President made a trip to Chicago,
ostensibly for the purpose of laying the foundation-stone
of the Douglas monument, but in reality for the express
purpose of justifying himself before the people.
From the comparative calm which had followed close
upon Appomattox, the country was in tumult. The
" black Republicans," angered by Johnson, were threaten
ing with clenched fists to force negro suffrage upon the
South, and were insisting upon military control until
every right of the negro should be recognized. The
South, on the other hand, minimized the racial disturb
ances, and promised that in time, when he had qualified
himself, they might even permit the negro to vote. They
were, however, exceedingly bitter against any assumption
of social equality on the part of the black man, and wher
ever some ambitious and stiff-necked freedman attempted
to assert such rights, he met with abuse and in some cases
with assault.
Thus the two sections were again at war, but at war in
a new way. The North said : " You shall not come back
into the Union with increased powers." The South
claimed that, according to the Northern statement, the
Southern States had never been out of the Union, and
having accepted the verdict of the North, and having
given in their allegiance once more to the stars and stripes,
they were entitled to full representation, as the articles of
the Constitution provided. The policy of the North was
to grant as little as possible, and that of the South to
secure as much as possible.
President Johnson took the position that the latter were
entitled to representation, and the fury of the extremists
in the North broke over him like a flood of flame. He
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 353
was called a traitor, an ingrate, a miscreant, and a perverter
of justice. Naturally he was appalled by this storm of
opposition, and it was to put himself right before the
Northern people that he set out upon this trip to the
West, speaking at every available point ; and in order to
have the apparent acquiescence and open support of Gen
eral Grant, he requested the general-in-chief to accompany
him.
The political friends of General Grant saw the cunning
design of the President, and besought the general to break
with him and refuse to go ; but the general replied in sub
stance : " I am a soldier ; he is my superior officer. So
long as I retain my present position, it is my duty to
obey." At the same time he said : " I am not a politician ;
I am not a candidate for office ; and therefore it can do
me little harm."
The President began his tour late in August, passing to
Baltimore and Philadelphia, speaking along the way. It
became evident at once that General Grant was the chief
personality in this tour. The heartiest cheers were for
him ; the receptions were for him. Everywhere he went,
the people cried : " Grant ! Grant ! " and never once did the
President's clique dominate this cordial appeal from the
people who loved Grant. At New York the President
made a very skilful speech, referring now to General
Grant on his left, and now to Admiral Farragut on his
right, succeeding thus in implicating them both in his
policy. To this Grant made no allusion whatever in his
short speeches, except at Albany, when he humorously
said :
" All I can say is, if the President and his cabinet had
kept their resolution, made in secret session, to leave the
admiral and myself to do all the talking, we would have
let you off to go to an early bed." He never got nearer
to a political discussion than this.
As the President went westward the receptions grew
ever cooler in temper. There were great crowds, but
they were by no means friendly to him or his policy.
" The real Caesar was General Grant. The calls for the
President were languid and perfunctory, but the cries for
354 LIFE °F GRANT
Grant came straight from the heart." When he did not
immediately show himself, " the shouts became short,
sharp, and angry, which signified it was the people's will
that he should appear."
At Auburn, a little boy, in attempting to touch General
Grant's hand, fell under the carriage and had his leg
broken. Shortly afterward, from his home, the poor little
sufferer sent word that he wished very much to see Gen
eral Grant ; and the general, being exceedingly sorrowful
concerning the accident, visited him, and did everything
he could to comfort and console him.
At Cleveland the indifference manifested toward the
President was very great, and he there made the angriest
and most imprudent speech of his tour thus far. " It was
a most painful spectacle to see the President of the United
States standing on the platform, facing a laughing and
indifferent crowd, his face flushed with passion, his hands
clenching and waving in mad gesticulation." General
Grant was ill and unable to appear, and his absence chilled
the eager throng, which dwindled away.
In Chicago discussion waxed bitter. The radical news
papers ridiculed and denounced the President's speeches
at Detroit and Cleveland. It was with difficulty that the
board of trade and the city officials were brought to proffer
decent welcome. It was said boldly that public interest
would center in General Grant and Admiral Farragut.
Their marvelous faculty of silence was alluded to with joy.
The President, Seward, Welles, and Randall occupied the
foreground ; but the cry, amid all the blare of formalities,
was for Grant.
At the same time that President Johnson was making
his attempts to reinstate himself with the people of the
North, a convention of the loyal men of the South was
arraigning the President, accusing him of profligacy in the
use of the public money, and charging him with the re
sponsibility of the murder of more than a thousand Union
men. This same feeling found expression in hisses among
the crowds in Chicago. But there were no hisses intended
for General Grant. His wonderful popularity overshad
owed every other demonstration.
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 355
At Springfield, Illinois, the calls for Grant were so
insistent and powerful that the President quite lost his
head, and cried out, " We are not here in the characters
of candidates for office running against each other!" —
which was a very dangerous and injudicious remark.
Again, to those disposed to create a disturbance, he
shouted : " I am in the line with General Grant, contending
for the union of the States."
The tour from Chicago through Illinois to St. Louis
was a gloomy one. Everywhere Johnson was given a cold
reception, while Grant's simplicity of manner and judicious
reserve added to his popularity, although the people were
impatient of his silence.
From St. Louis the President and his party swung round
through Indianapolis and Louisville to Cincinnati. The
meetings in Indianapolis were very turbulent, amounting
to riot. General Grant rebuked the disturbers by saying :
" Gentlemen, I am ashamed of you. Go home and be
ashamed of yourselves." In Cincinnati the demonstra
tions for him became so marked, and the defection from
the President so great, that the general was obliged to
utter himself upon the subject. He here said that he stood
next to the President as the head of the army of the
United States, but that he was not the leader of a political
party ; that he did not consider the army a place for a
politician, and would not, therefore, be committed to the
support of the present political party, or consent that the
army should be made a party machine. He would not
allow anything to be said which would seem to foreshadow
his resignation from the army and his candidacy for
political office.
During the entire trip the President and Mr. Seward
gave out implications and innuendos designed to convey
the impression that General Grant was a political approver
of the President's policy, while the radicals everywhere
sought out ways to honor him and to humiliate the Presi
dent. They were determined to force a break between
them. All this made matters extremely difficult for
General Grant.
The meeting in Pittsburg was stormy, almost as riotous
356 LIFE OF GRANT
as that in Indianapolis. At times the noise became too
great for the President to be heard. Cries for Grant pre
vented the President from speaking, and he was obliged to
beckon to the general, who stood near, to come to the
front of the platform. Cheers broke forth as Grant ap
peared, and continued as long as he stood there ; but when
he bowed and retired, the President found it impossible to
get a further hearing, and was forced to say " Good
night " and withdraw.
On September 15 Johnson returned to Washington. To
the throngs assembled to greet him on his safe return he
said:
" Such a welcome from the people who have been eye
witnesses of the manner in which I have daily discharged
my duties is peculiarly encouraging. I believe I can
testify that the great portion of your fellow-citizens I have
seen — and I have seen millions of them since I left — will
accord with you in sustaining a free government in com
pliance with the Constitution"; which was a very hopeful
view to take after the stormy meetings which had greeted
him on his circuit. Even his supporting journals con
ceded that his trip had been a gross blunder and his
speeches in bad taste.
General Grant returned to his multiplex and pressing
duties, from which he had been taken by the President's
command. His pay now was nearly twenty thousand
dollars a year. His children were well and at school.
He was at home in the capital of his nation, and the cup of
his prosperity was level to the brim. He had good horses
in plenty, a house in Philadelphia and one in Galena. If
happiness depended upon things exterior, he was happy
and quite content. He had a life position, and could
grow old honorably and without financial care.
He had been made full general in the previous May by
a bill reviving the grade of general in the United States
army. This bill was originally drafted by Mr. Washburne
of Illinois as a means of promoting General Grant. Thad
Stevens, in speaking to the measure, said :
" Sir, I agree with the gentleman from New York in
being willing to promote General Grant, not only to the
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 357
office of full general, but also to a higher office whenever
the happy moment shall arrive."
The struggle between the President and Congress grew
each month more bitter. The election strengthened
Congress, and the plan decided upon by the Republican
members was expressed in an amendment to the Consti
tution, known as " Article XIV," of which the main intent
was the protection of the freedmen. It provided also, in a
rider, that in case any Southern State admitted to repre
sentation under the clauses of this article should deny
the right, under any pretext, of a black citizen to vote,
then the basis of representation of that State should be
the white citizenship alone. In this way the white South
could never become a dominant power in Congress.
As soon as it became evident that the South would
reject this, then a far more severe and arbitrary measure
was designed, called the " Military Bill." This was held
in reserve till the South, influenced by the President, re
jected Article XIV. It was then passed over the veto of
the President. The North had become convinced by the
legislation of the State governments of Mississippi and
South Carolina that the negro needed the most powerful
protection.
The bill assumed that there were no just and adequate
governments in the States of Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; and in order that peace
and good order should be enforced in these States until
loyal and republican State governments could be legally
instituted, it provided that five military districts should
be established, under the command of officers not below
the rank of brigadier-general, appointed by the President;
and that it should be the duty of these officers to protect
the rights, life, liberty, and person of all citizens ; that
no unusual or cruel punishment should be inflicted ; that
no sentence of death should be carried into execution
without the approval of the President ; etc.
The milk in this cocoanut was contained in the final
paragraph, which provided that " whenever these States
should have formed a constitution and government in con-
358 LIFE OF GRANT
formity with the Constitution of the United States in all
respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by
the male citizens over twenty-one years of age, of what
ever race or color," and should ratify the Fourteenth
Amendment by a majority of the qualified voters, then
the Military Bill should become inoperative in that State.
It will thus be seen that the Military Bill not merely
insisted that the South respect the civil rights and enfran
chise the negro, but set a military government over the
people to induce them to accept the inevitable. The
North was determined. It said : " You must respect the
rights of the negro ; you must include him in your basis
of representation, and you must admit him or his repre
sentatives to a share in your State deliberations, and to
your delegations to Congress."
Naturally, the South cried out against this " terrible
measure." It claimed that the premises of the bill were
utterly wrong; that the fires of hate and rebellion were
not still burning in the South ; that Union men and
negroes were not persecuted; that while occasional in
stances of assault and terrorism occurred, still they were
the exception, and not the rule. The press all over the
South claimed that the people were eager for peace, and
eager for a return to perfect union with the North. They
did not, however, admit the right of the national govern
ment to pass upon the qualifications of their voters, and
they could not bring themselves to a consideration of
placing the ballot in the hands of the poor, ignorant,
simple-minded Africans among them.
In the midst of the almost universal dissent of the
Southern leaders, General Longstreet upheld the measures
which were included under the Reconstruction Acts and
Military Bill. In a letter to a Unionist in New Orleans,
he said :
I shall be happy to work under any measure that promises to
bring the glory of peace and good will toward men. The sword
has decided in favor of the North, and what they claim as prin
ciples cease to be principles and are become law. It is, therefore,
our duty to abandon ideas that are obsolete, and conform to the
requirements of law.
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 359
Here was a man, not only brave and outspoken in his
own right, but a man who stood close to General Grant,
and knew to the full his fairness and justice. Could all
the leaders of the South have taken General Longstreet's
view, reconstruction would have been possible without
further bloodshed. It was not to be. The waves of war
must break and die again and again on the beach of time.
Wendell Phillips well expressed the extreme radical
Northern position in a speech in Chicago :
" Had Jefferson Davis succeeded, he would have had a
right to enforce his doctrine. We conquered, and we
have a right to enforce ours. Our President is a traitor.
He is laboring to save the South from the consequences
of her defeat. Once put Southern statesmen inside the
Capitol, and we give them power to fight the battle over
again inside the government. I do not want to punish
Johnson ; all that I want is his room. The seeds of recon
struction will not grow in a day ; the South is not going
to give up the struggle in a day. What we need is North
ern men at the seat of government."
Referring to Grant's repeated utterances that he was a
soldier, and not a politician, Phillips savagely said :
" Grant, the most loved man in America, when he said,
' I put on the uniform of no party,' fell in the estimation
of the people. He is the high constable of the nation.
He is paid to make our flag respected in New Orleans.
If he does not do it, he fails in his duty."
The orator ended by calling the bill for the military
government of the South " a makeshift and a thing of no
account."
In such a time as this no living man could have pleased
all parties. Bitter and burning passions were uppermost,
both North and South. General Grant continued to hold
the balance between the extremists. His natural tempera
ment was that of calmness and justice. He angered many
Northern friends by his mildness and tolerance, while
every military order he issued looking to the better govern
ment of the Southern States was resented and criticized.
With all his gentleness and dislike of armed battalions, he
did not allow himself to forget that a bloody war had just
360 LIFE OF GRANT
ended, and that firmness and decision of action were abso
lutely necessary in dealing with the conquered States.
He was even then the chief man of the nation, and no
Southron of importance since the close of the war had
visited Washington without presenting himself to General
Grant. To all these he had proffered the same advice.
To every one he had spoken very plainly. He had de
clared himself to be their friend, and as their friend he
had warned them that the North was aroused and deter
mined, and if the Fourteenth Article were rejected,
harsher terms would surely follow. He had entreated
with them, for the sake of the Union, for the sake of
peace, to accept the situation.
As the Military Bill originally passed the House, the
power of appointing the commanders was arbitrarily taken
from the hands of the President and given over to General
Grant ; and it was further provided that the general should
not be removed during the term of Andrew Johnson's
presidency. It was designed to make the operation of
the bill entirely independent of the President, whom the
Republicans considered a traitor, and whom they were
even then planning to impeach. They were unwilling
to trust his rule, and were unable to bring him to trial.
But their faith in General Grant knew no limit. They
were quite willing to give him the most dangerous degree
of power ever intrusted to an American.
This final clause, however, at the general's own request,
was stricken out by the Senate, and the appointments left
where they belonged, in the hands of the President and
the Secretary of War, with the advice and consent of
General Grant. Even then Grant's power was almost
absolute over eleven States of the Union. By the terms
of the bill he held in his hand the fate of every officer,
almost of every individual, in these States. With any
other man at the head of such a system the South might
well have been alarmed. They seemed not to have been
profoundly uneasy so long as Andrew Johnson and Gen
eral Grant controlled the actual working out of the measure.
They feared no tyranny at the hands of the general-in-
chief, though they cried out against the rule of the
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 361
" understrappers " and " buckle-polishers " of this military
despotism. They did not know until long after that the bill
was drawn with the advice and consent of General Grant.
When the bill passed by a heavy vote over the veto
message of President Johnson, the South accepted the
defeat. " We are powerless now under the heel of mili
tary despots. We must accept the situation as it stands.
Resistance would be worse than folly ; it would be mad
ness. The issue before our people now is not whether
the negro shall have the right of suffrage extended to
them, or not; that has been settled by stern decree, and
we must govern ourselves accordingly."
Other papers contained articles headed, " General Grant
the Hope of the South." " Our only resource now is the
magnanimity of those who know the perils of battle and
the trials of the camp. They alone can estimate rightly
the blessings of peace and harmony. Grant is endeared
to them by all the associations of successful war. His
dauntless courage is written in the history of bloody cam
paigns. His magnanimity at Lee's surrender touched
every Southerner. Repeated acts of generosity and kind
ness adorn his intercourse with us. In the midst of
troubles and anxieties and menaces he has been just.
His love of constitutional liberty is not less than his valor
and magnanimity. When the enactment of Congress
vested in him the sole power to enforce the existing mili
tary law, he voluntarily subjected all acts and all proceed
ings to the approval of the President " ; and looking forward
to his possible candidacy for the Presidency, one article
concluded by asking: " Could there be a greater peace-
offering by the soldiers of the South to their victorious
brethren in the North than Ulysses S. Grant?"
This article was also quoted with approval by other
papers, and at about the same time General Lee publicly
expressed a decided hope that the Union of the States
might endure for all time, and further declared that he
regarded the course of President Johnson and General
Grant as liberal and humane. He also counseled submis
sion to the law. He could have done much to restore
good feeling, but he remained coldly negative.
362 LIFE OF GRANT
General Grant's course continued to be conservative
and just. The military commanders selected by him,
with the advice of Johnson and Stanton, were considered
wise, and in his instructions to these commanders, and in
all subsequent letters to them, he counseled moderation
and forbearance toward the people of the South. No
assault upon his action, and no exasperation of turbulent
mobs in the South, could render him vindictive. His
whole mind seemed set on rebuilding the nation, with the
least military interference consistent with insuring peace
and tranquillity to both races. When the provocations
to arbitrary exercise of power were greatest, the Southern
press was forced to acknowledge that no man had suffered
a deliberate injustice at the hands of General Grant. That
the malcontents held him in wholesome respect is also
certain. He admitted no trifling.
At the same time the Northern radicals looked to him
to check the reckless course of the President. The first
collision between them had taken place in October of the
previous year, just before the autumn elections. At the
time trouble seemed likely to follow between the State
authorities of Maryland, which were friendly to Johnson,
and those of the city of Baltimore. The governor had
appealed to the President for armed assistance, and John
son had made several attempts to induce General Grant
to send United States troops into the State. Grant had
protested very earnestly against this, declaring that no
reason existed for giving or promising military aid to
support the laws of Maryland. He had then visited the city
and conferred with the police commissioners, and through
his influence the questions in dispute had been left to a
decision of the court. This incident, however, had con
vinced Grant that Johnson was quite capable of a danger
ous, if not disloyal, act.
In a confidential letter to General Sheridan, he spoke
of the violent differences which had grown up between
the President and Congress, and said :
I very much fear we are fast approaching the time when the
President will want to declare Congress itself illegal, uncon
stitutional and revolutionary. Commanders in Southern States
GRANT AND RECONSTRUCTION 363
will have to take great care to see, if a crisis does come, that no
armed headway can be made against the Union. For this rea
son it will be very desirable that Texas should have no reason
able excuse for calling out the militia authorized by their legis
lature. Indeed, it should be prevented. I write this in strict
confidence, but to let you know how matters stand in my opinion,
so that you may square your official acting accordingly. I gave
orders quietly, two or three weeks since, for the removal of all
arms in store in the Southern States to Northern arsenals. I wish
that you would see that those from Baton Rouge and other
places within your command are being moved rapidly by the
ordnance officers having the matter in charge.
Johnson would have removed Grant, had he dared to
do so. He well knew the danger of antagonizing Grant's
friends, however, and determined, therefore, to send him
on a pretended mission to Mexico, and to put Sherman,
for the time, in his place. He supposed that Grant, be
cause of his profound interest in Mexican affairs, would
accept this mission at once, and would be absent during
the elections in Maryland, which, for some reason, he
desired. But the plan did not work out. Grant under
stood too well the aims and character of the President.
He politely declined. He wished to be on the ground,
to prevent trouble, if possible.
At a meeting of the cabinet to which he was summoned,
his detailed instructions were read to him by the Secre
tary of State, precisely as though he had not refused
the honor. He was now thoroughly aroused, and before
the whole cabinet declared his unwillingness to accept the
mission.
The President became very angry. Turning to the
Attorney-General, he inquired: "Mr. Attorney-General,
is there any reason why General Grant should not obey my
orders? Is he in any way ineligible to this position?"
Grant started to his feet at once, and exclaimed : " I
can answer that question, Mr. President, without referring
it to the Attorney-General. I am an American citizen, and
eligible to any office to which any American is eligible. I
am an officer of the army, and bound to obey your mili
tary orders. But this is a civil office, a purely diplomatic
364 LIFE OF GRANT
duty, and I cannot be compelled to undertake it. Any
legal military order you give me I will obey, but this is
civil, and not military, and I decline the duty. No power
on earth can compel me to it."
He said not another word. No one replied, and he left
the cabinet-chamber.
The President then telegraphed for General Sherman,
who was in the mountains of New Mexico. Sherman
returned at once to Washington, but reported directly to
General Grant. He found Grant very much moved by
what he called the plot of President Johnson to get rid
of him. He again denied the right of the President to
order him on such a mission, and said he had determined
to disobey the order and stand the consequences.
Having the matter thoroughly in hand, General Sher
man went to the President, who greeted him with great
cordiality. " I sent for you, general, to command the
army in General Grant's absence." He then explained his
wishes.
Sherman not only told him that General Grant would
not go, but said : " You cannot afford to quarrel with
General Grant, Mr. President. I can be spared much
better than he."
With the two greatest soldiers of the army opposed to
his plan, the President decided to submit gracefully.
" Certainly," he said ; " if you will go, that will answer
perfectly."
In this wise did the loyal Sherman repay his chief for
his consideration and kindness when Stanton and the
President were perfectly certain he was arranging treason
able terms with General Johnston.
CHAPTER XL
GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR
ON August 5, 1867, only one cabinet officer represent
ing the Union sentiment of Abraham Lincoln remained
in office. This was Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War;
and Johnson determined to make a clean sweep by remov
ing him. He addressed to him the following curt note :
SIR : Public considerations of the highest character constrain
me to say that your resignation as Secretary of War will be ac
cepted.
To this note Secretary Stanton replied :
Public considerations of the highest character constrain me
not to resign the office of Secretary of War before the next
meeting of Congress.
General Grant, being informed some days before of the
President's design to remove Stanton, had written a letter
remonstrating, wherein he had reviewed the splendid work
which the Secretary had done for the Union, and spoke of
his incorruptible and zealous spirit. The general had not
expected to check Johnson, but had wished to put himself
on record in opposition. He had been in controversy
with Stanton over the question of the power of the War
Department, but he recognized his loyalty and zeal at
this point.
After a week's notice, the President issued an order
suspending Secretary Stanton, and appointing General
Grant Secretary of War ad interim.
365
366 LIFE OF GRANT
This placed General Grant in the most delicate and try
ing position of his public life. His letter remonstrating
against Stanton's removal was not made public at the
time, and neither Stanton nor the radical Republicans
understood his position. They were determined that he
should be a politician, and he was equally sure that his
position was that of a soldier under command of his su
perior officer. It was not for him to question the legality
of President Johnson's removal of Stanton, or of the Ten
ure of Office Bill (which had been passed to prevent just
such removals), but it was his duty to shut out some less
loyal man. Therefore, he assumed the office of Secretary
of War, and said nothing, not even to Stanton, and for a
time the two men misunderstood each other.
Encouraged by his success, President Johnson passed at
once to the removal of Generals Sickles and Sheridan, two
of Grant's most trusted district commanders. He was re
solved to stop " reconstruction by military means " so far as
possible by putting in the places of these loyal and soldierly
officers men who would less stringently uphold the claims
of the negro, and more fully recognize local white author
ity and local government. He was now thoroughly en
raged, and determined to assert himself as against the
power of General Grant, or the loyal North, or of any one
whomsoever.
Within a week he sent a letter to General Grant,
wherein was inclosed an order removing General Sheridan
as commander of the Fifth Military District, and substi
tuting General George H. Thomas.* He also invited sug
gestions from Grant, who immediately replied :
I am pleased to avail myself of your invitation to urge— ear
nestly urge, urge in the name of a patriotic people — that this
order should not be insisted upon. It is the will of the country
that General Sheridan should not be removed from his present
command. This is a republic, where the will of the people is the
law of the land. I beg that their voice may be heard. General
Sheridan has performed his civil duties faithfully and intelligently.
His removal will only be regarded as an effort to defeat the
* General Thomas declined on the score of his health, and General Han
cock was substituted.
GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR 367
laws of Congress. It will be interpreted by the unrecon
structed ... as a triumph. It will embolden them to renewed
opposition to the will of the loyal masses, believing that they
have the Executive with them.
General Grant loved Sheridan, and could not sit quietly
by and see him humiliated. He wished, also, to have
him close to the Mexican border, ready for an emergency.
To this letter, which had its weak points, the President
replied with great boldness and energy, considering his
long silence:
I am not aware that the question of retaining General Sheri
dan in command of the Fifth Military District has ever been
submitted to the people themselves for determination. . . .
General Sheridan has rendered himself exceedingly obnoxious by
the manner in which he has exercised the powers conferred by
Congress, and still more so by the resort to authority not granted
by law. . . . His removal cannot be regarded, therefore, as an
effort to defeat the laws of Congress.
He ended by asserting his Presidential prerogatives.
These letters (though Grant's was private) were made
public not long after, and were taken to be of enormous
importance in the South. The Southern press exulted,
saying, " President Johnson has at last asserted himself,"
and that " in an unguarded hour the inevitable cigar has
fallen from General Grant's lips, and his real mind has been
revealed." On the other hand, the extremists of the North
regarded Grant's letter as an expression of weakness. He
was accused of having surrendered to the President. He
had pleaded when he should have commanded. It really
showed his regard for law and order.
Wendell Phillips issued a manifesto, in which he said :
" Grant has at last spoken, and blundered. This was
our St. Michael, whose resistless sword was to mow down
the Satan of the fallen host. . . . The general of the
United States is to-day a weed caught in the Presidential
maelstrom. Let no Grant man, after this, call Johnson a
clumsy knave."
Others said : " Grant has surrendered to the President " ;
and even his friends admitted that he had greatly disap-
368 LIFE OF GRANT
pointed the American people at this point. It was ob
served at the time that the Southern press was very much
emboldened by the President's successful opposition to
Grant, and the corresponding weakening of the Military
Department, the very thing Grant had feared.
Finding this letter (which sprang from his love for
Sheridan) misunderstood, Grant immediately resumed his
cigar and his silence, enduring all the misinterpretations
which were to be borne during the four months in which
he filled the complicate positions of Secretary of War and
General of the Army. He did his duty faithfully and well.
He privately opposed every measure of the President's
which he regarded as unwise or unwarranted, but retained
the office to prevent some one more in harmony with
Johnson from taking his place. He continued to carry out
the laws of Congress. He repeatedly overruled General
Hancock, who had succeeded to Sheridan's district, and
who seemed quite as ready to carry out the will of the
President as the will of Congress.
In all the orders sent out to the district commanders,
General Grant endeavored to maintain a strictly neutral
position. His orders were :
Preserve the peace. . . . The military cannot set up to be the
judge as to which set of election judges have the right to control,
but must confine their action to putting down hostile mobs.
Again he said :
You are to prevent conflict. Your mission is to preserve peace,
and not to take sides in political difference. You are to prevent
mobs from aiding either party. If called upon legally to inter
fere, your duty is plain. . . . The military cannot be made use of
to defeat the executive of a state in enforcing the laws of a state.
He kept the duties of his twofold office distinct during
all this time, and gravely wrote orders as Secretary of
War Grant to General U. S. Grant, and made reports as
General Grant to Secretary of War Grant. The two
offices were on opposite sides of the street, and to play
the two parts he was obliged frequently to cross and re-
cross the intervening space. Badeau remarks that he
GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR 369
seemed to be a bit more formal when on the cabinet side
of the avenue, and that he called his aides by their first
name, or at least spoke to them without the use of their
title, when at army headquarters.
It was not without its humorous complications, but it
was too wearisome and galling for the general to perceive
much fun in it. He hated the wrangling to which he was
made party as a member of the cabinet, and he asked to
be excused from the purely political part of his position.
He was a soldier discharging his duties, and did not think
the President had a right to demand that he should be de
tained and badgered by questions relating to party policy.
He waited patiently for Congress to assemble, hoping
to be then released.
At last the Senate took the matter in hand. Grant,
during his entire five months of retention of the office, had
neither affirmed nor denied the legality of Johnson's posi
tion ; but as the Senate began inquiry, he gave the Presi
dent to understand that, in case Stanton was sustained, he
would immediately resign in Stanton's favor.
To this Johnson verbally replied that he desired Gen
eral Grant to retain the office in order to test the legality
of the act, and that he would be responsible for Grant's
action, and pay all fines which might be imposed. To this
Grant replied asking for written instructions concerning
his duties.
On January 14, being notified that the Senate had not
concurred in the removal of Stanton, General Grant made
good his word, turned the key in the door of the War
Department, and sent a note to President Johnson, as fol
lows : " My functions as Secretary of War ad interim
ceased at the moment of the receiving of the within
notice."
Stanton immediately resumed the office, and sent a very
brusque note to General Grant, saying that he would like
to see him. There was nothing in Stanton's words or
actions to show that he appreciated the delicacy and cour
tesy on the part of General Grant during this long and
troublesome period ; in fact, he renewed his claims to
command in the field.
37° LIFE OF GRANT
President Johnson was thoroughly enraged, and imme
diately claimed that General Grant had violated his promise
to give due warning, and that he had all along acquiesced
in Stanton's removal, and that he had not properly notified
the President of his change of opinion in the matter.
" Therefore," the President concluded, " I am taken by
surprise by your sudden surrender of the keys of the
office."
To this Grant replied :
The course you would have it understood that I agreed to
pursue was in violation of law and without orders from you,
while the course I did pursue, and which I never doubted you
fully understood, was in accordance with law, and not in disobe
dience to any orders of my superiors. And now, Mr. President,
when my honor as a soldier and integrity as a man have been so
violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but regard
this whole matter from beginning to end as an attempt to involve
me in a resistance of law for which you hesitated to assume the
responsibility, and thus destroy my character before the country.
This led to a heated public controversy between General
Grant and President Johnson in respect of a final cabinet
meeting on a Saturday, wherein Johnson reasserted that he
had promised to take all the imprisonment and pay all the
fines that might be imposed upon General Grant for re
taining the office in opposition to the congressional will.
" When he arose to leave the room, I repeated the remark,
for I wanted to know whether or not he intended to hold
on to the office, designing to relieve him if it was his pur
pose to yield it."
To this letter General Grant replied, saying that he had
requested the President to give him instructions in writing
of what he wished him to do.
I stated that I had not looked particularly into the Tenure of
Office Bill, but that what I had stated was a general principle, and
if I should change my mind in this particular case I would in
form him of the fact.
Subsequently, on reading the Tenure of Office Bill closely, I
found that I could not, without violation of the law, refuse to
vacate the office of Secretary of War the moment Mr. Stanton
was reinstated by the Senate, even though the President should
GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR 371
order me to retain it, which he never did. Taking this view of
the matter, and learning on Saturday, the nth instant, that the
Senate had taken up the subject of Mr. Stanton's suspension, after
some conversation with General Sherman and some members of
my staff, I stated that the law left me no discretion as to my
action, should Mr. Stanton be reinstated, and that I intended to
inform the President. I went to the President for the sole pur
pose of making this decision known, and did so make it known.
In doing this I fulfilled the promise made in our last preceding
conversation on the subject.
The President, however, instead of accepting my view, . . .
contended that he had suspended Mr. Stanton under authority
given by the Constitution. ... I stated that the law was bind
ing on me, constitutional or not, until set aside by the proper
tribunal. An hour or more was consumed, each reiterating his
views on this subject, until, it getting late, the President said he
would see me again.
I did not agree to call again on Monday, nor was I sent for
by the President until the following Monday. With Mr. Stanton
I had no communication. On Tuesday General Comstock, who
had carried my official letter, and who saw the President open and
read my communication, brought back to me from the President
word that he wanted to see me that day at the cabinet meeting.
This meeting opened precisely as though he were a
member of the cabinet (Grant went on to say). It was
Johnson's intention to ignore all that he had said and
written in opposition. The conversation was practically a
review of all that had gone before.
To Grant's letter President Johnson replied, saying the
interview had terminated in a distinct understanding that
if, on reflection, General Grant should conclude it his duty
to surrender the office upon action in Mr. Stanton's favor,
he should return the key, in order, if he desired to do so,
that the President might designate some one to succeed
Grant. He boldly said :
It was my purpose to relieve you from the further discharge
of the duties of Secretary of War, and to appoint some other
person in that capacity. ... It was then understood that
there should be a further conference on Monday, by which time
I supposed you would be prepared to inform me of your final
decision. You failed, however, to fulfill the engagement.
372 LIFE OF GRANT
As a matter of fact, Stanton forestalled Grant by going
at an early hour to the adjutant-general, and demanding
the key. When Grant arrived Stanton was in possession of
the office, and Grant made no further effort in the matter.
The issue was now straight and clear between Grant
and Johnson. In plain terms, it was a question of who
lied in the matter, and with regard to the larger number
of people in the Union decision was prompt and immedi
ate. If there was one thing for which General Grant was
noted, it was for his truthfulness of speech. With the
exception of the copperhead press and the more extreme
papers of the South, the country declared in favor of Gen
eral Grant, and he came out of it strengthened rather than
weakened in the judgment of the unprejudiced.
This controversy was most important ; it not only vin
dicated General Grant in the opinion of the loyal men of
the nation, but brought him fairly and squarely into poli
tics. He could no longer remain a simple soldier doing
his duty under command of President Johnson. He was
forced to take sides. He then and there joined the Re
publican party.
There can be no question of his pleasure at being set
right before the loyal people of the country. He was
tired of occupying a false position, and his letters made
his position plain with the Northern people, though it
drew the line sharply between his friends and his enemies.
In proportion as his position became defined in the public
mind, he was accused of departing from his stand at the
close of the war, and from the gentle policy of Lincoln.
" The rebels and copperheads opened their batteries on
him during January all along the line," but this only
rallied his friends around him the stronger.
The impeachment trial long threatening now came for
ward with a rush. The whole land was turbulent with
discussion. Originally General Grant had been very much
opposed to this measure. He was now convinced that
events justified it. Johnson's removals of Sheridan and
Stanton, and his perfidious course toward himself, had
convinced him that the President was a very dangerous
man, and should be removed.
GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR 373
He was called before the committee, and gave his testi
mony without anger and without the slightest distortion
of the facts. He repeated what his own words had been
as clearly and as simply as ever in his life. He was not
capable of deceit in matters of this kind. At the same
time, he was accused of urging senators to vote in favor of
impeachment.
He was at first much disappointed at the failure of im
peachment proceedings, but, as usual, remained discreetly
silent. " Afterward his judgment changed, and he came
to think it better for the country, on the whole, that the
President should remain in office until the end of his term."
He was heartily glad when the turmoil of the impeach
ment ceased. Johnson was profoundly instructed by the
close vote, and was saved from utter ruin only by promise
of a change of policy.
" The result of the trial was a crushing blow to Stan-
ton," says Badeau. " It implied that he should not have
remained in the cabinet against the will of his chief, and
it became necessary for him to at once resign." General
Schofield was made Secretary in his stead. At first Grant
was opposed to Schofield's acceptance of the position, but,
after some thought, revised his opinion, and the new Sec
retary entered the cabinet in full harmony with the gen
eral of the army. This ended the contest over the war
office, and prevented any violent measures on the part of
the President toward General Grant and the officers com
manding in the districts of the South.
The lenient policy which Johnson had pursued with re
gard to the military districts under the peculiar political
conditions then existing had led to the formation of secret
bodies of men in Alabama and Mississippi, whose purpose
was to intimidate the negro and drive out the Republican
partizans of these States. Early in the year the first
notices of the famous Kuklux Klan began to appear.
In the Richmond " Examiner," in March, appeared an
article wherein great delight was expressed over the
coming of the famous raiders to Virginia. The Klan
haa sprung up in the West, but now it had crossed the
mountains.
374 LIFE OF GRANT
It was too much to expect that the people of the South
should in one year, or in two years or a score of years, be
able to eradicate from their midst all the hate and bitter
ness and lawlessness engendered by four years of war.
The Kuklux, and all that it meant, was simply the sur
viving spirit of the war carried forward in new forms.
Opposition to the power of the United States was now
secret, scattered, nocturnal, and disorganized, but none
the less effective.
General Grant understood the meaning of this thing,
and at once directed the commanders to ferret out and
crush, if possible, these bands of lawless men ; but he was
not aided by the Executive as he should have been, and
the trouble spread.
Late in the year an article appeared in the Louisville
" Journal " which was largely quoted in the South, and
changed the whole tone of discussion. The heading of
this article denoted its character : " General Grant the
Father of the Reconstruction Scheme." The cause of the
article was the publication of a paper (written nearly two
years before) by General Grant as indorsement of a letter
by General Sheridan, wherein he said :
In my opinion, the great number of murders of Union men
and freedmen in Texas (which are not only unpunished, but un-
investigated) constitutes practically a state of insurrection ; and
believing it to be the province and duty of every good government
to afford protection to the lives, liberties, and property of her
citizens, I would recommend the declaration of martial law in
Texas.
"This letter was dated January 29, 1866, and on the
6th of February Mr. Thaddeus Stevens reported the
Reconstruction Bill " ; and this, the Louisville " Journal "
now informed the South, was largely due to General Grant.
" General Grant undeniably stands confessed as the father
of the reconstruction scheme. He belongs to the radicals.
Their title to him is clear. Let them take him ; they are
welcome to him. He is a stupendous humbug. There is
a meanness in his mousing for the Presidency which is
inexpressibly sickening."
GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR 375
In comment upon this, the " Intelligencer " said :
" The whole country has wondered at the reticence of
General Grant. It will wonder no longer. The game he
has been playing is now exposed. He has unwarily
shown his hand. We look to the National Democracy of
the North and West, and the white race inhabiting every
section of the United States untainted with negro radical
ism, to accomplish the overthrow, not only of General
Grant, but every oth^r candidate who does not stand upon
the platform on whicn is inscribed : ' This is a white man's
governmenf ^nd must be maintained.' '
CHAPTER XL!
GRANT SAVES THE UNION PAkfr
days after the acquittal of President Johnson,
the Republican party assembled in convention in
Chicago to nominate their candidates for the next cam
paign. Six hundred and fifty delegates, representing
every State in the Union, including the unreconstructed
States of the South, presented their credentials and were
accepted. Only one name was seriously mentioned for
first place on the ticket, and that was General Grant's.
His fame was overshadowing. There were five candidates
for the second place.
The city was tremendously excited, and vast crowds of
people poured in from all the surrounding country with
something of the same fervor of interest that had been ex
hibited in the convention which nominated Abraham Lin
coln for the first time. Indeed, these men considered that
they were again met to save the nation and all they had
fought to secure.
It was, of course, a convention dominated by the mili
tary spirit. Nearly all of the great commanders of the
Northern army were there, enthusiastic for their chief.
The hall, decorated for the purpose of expressing the pa
triotic zeal of the delegates, made lavish use of the red,
white, and blue of the Union flag, and every allusion to
the war and its successes gave rise to the most fervid ap
plause. The members could hardly wait until the ordi
nary formalities were over, so eager were they to honor
Grant.
376
GRANT SAVES THE UNION PARTY 377
At length the point was reached where nominations
were in order, and General Logan, rising, said:
" Then, sir, in the name of the loyal citizens and soldiers
and sailors of this great republic, in the name of loyalty,
liberty, humanity, and justice, I nominate as candidate for
the Chief Magistracy of this nation Ulysses S. Grant."
This speech, made, with propriety, by the man who had
introduced Colonel Grant to his first regiment, aroused
the greatest enthusiasm. The audience rose with tumul
tuous cheers for Grant. No other name was heard. So
great and so instantaneous was the emotional response that
a delegate from South Carolina, as soon as he could be
heard, moved that the vote be taken by acclamation.
" No, no!" was the reply. The States wanted an oppor
tunity to speak, and the roll was called.
Alabama gave eighteen votes for Grant. California
shouted : " We come here six thousand miles to cast our
votes for General Grant." Colorado said: "The Rocky
Mountains of Colorado bring General Grant all they have
— six votes. Florida, " the land of flowers," gave six, and
Georgia, through Governor Brown, cast her eighteen votes
for General Grant, " heartily desiring to speed the restora
tion of the Union, harmony and peace and good govern
ment." Kansas, the "State of John Brown," gave him
six votes. Louisiana said : " We propose to fight it out
on that line, if it takes all summer." Ohio, which had the
honor of being the mother of the great leader, cast " forty-
two votes for her illustrious son." Virginia, " rising from
the grave that General Grant dug for her at Appomattox
in 1865," came with twenty votes to enlist under his ban
ner. " We propose next autumn ' to move on the enemy's
works,' " its spokesman concluded. And so the roll went
on, every State presenting all she had with boundless good
will ; and then the president announced the result :
" Gentlemen of the convention, the roll is completed.
You have six hundred and fifty votes, and you have given
six hundred and fifty votes for Ulysses S. Grant."
The audience again arose in a transport of harmonious
enthusiasm, and cheered themselves hoarse, while the new
drop-curtain in the rear of the stage was uncovered, pre-
378 LIFE OF GRANT
senting a fine portrait of the general, supported by the
Goddess of Liberty, with the motto above: " Match him!"
As soon as the convention reached a measure of quiet,
the election of Vice- President went forward, and the Hon.
Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
was selected to be the second on the ticket.
Old Jesse Grant, the father of the future President, was
on the platform, overwhelmed by the enthusiasm for his
son. He had addressed the convention of soldiers and
sailors the evening before. In his speech he asked : " What
have I done, that I should be called upon by the braves of
the nation to speak to them? " Some one in the audience
had called out: "You had a son; that is enough." This
allusion had so filled his eyes with tears of pride and joy
that he could not go on, but had retired amid the cheers
of the convention. Now, as he sat before the national
convention, his tongue, commonly so ready, failed him
utterly.
With regard to the doctrine upon which they were to
make their fight, the Republican party said : " First, the
regulation of the suffrage in all the loyal States belongs to
the States themselves ; second, in the States that attempted
to secede, the general government must give the suffrage
to all loyal men, whether they had it under State laws or
not, on the ground that ' every consideration of public
safety, of gratitude, and of justice demands that they should
have it.' ' That is to say, broadly speaking, the Northern
States could regulate their suffrage for themselves, but that
the Southern States could not be trusted to deal justly
with the negro, and that suffrage should there be deter
mined by the power of the general government.
The situation which they had to face was this : Three
years had passed away since the close of the war, and
though every measure had looked to the restoration of the
Union, the Union was not restored. The Southern States
were still outside the halls of Congress; they had no rep
resentation and no voice in the making of laws. This,
however disappointing at the time, was a perfectly natural
situation. War is not so easily forgotten. Racial antip
athies are not so quickly legislated out of existence.
GRANT SAVES THE UNION PARTY 379
Society is an organism, history the story of its develop
ment. In the course of the growth of a nation a year is
but an hour. Little could be expected in so short a time.
As General Grant had said in Atlanta, it was natural
that friction should continue after the war. It was natural
that the hotheads, the extremists, the prejudiced at the
North as well as in the South, should claim the larger share
of public attention. It was natural that every vicious
editorial written in the South should be copied in the
Northern press, and that every hateful speech in the North
should be reported in the South. It was natural that
politicians should make use of all sectionalism to further
their own ends.
The time needed a strong man, a man about whose
course there could be no question. The South needed a
man like Grant, whose words were few and to be depended
upon. His nomination gave tranquillity to both sections
at once. The tone of the Southern papers almost instantly
changed. While continuing to criticize him, their words
had little of the fierce energy with which they had urged
on and sustained the vacillating and unwise policy of
President Johnson. Nevertheless the " solid South " lined
itself up against the solid North. The war of words began.
Meanwhile the nominee was quietly going about his
duties as general of the army. But a few days later, the
Republicans of the city arranged an impromptu serenade,
and about a thousand people gathered before his house,
calling for " Grant! Grant! General Grant !"
When the general appeared, Governor Bout well made a
brief congratulatory address, alluding briefly to the gen
eral's military career.
The general appeared very much embarrassed when it
came his turn to speak, but he made a very considerable
address, for him. He ended by saying : " All I can say is
that, to whatever position I am called by your will, I will
endeavor to discharge its duties with fidelity and honesty
of purpose. Of my rectitude in the performance of pub
lic duties you must judge for yourselves from my record,
which is open to you."
A few days later the committee of the National Repub-
380 LIFE OF GRANT
lican Convention called upon their candidate at his house,
and formally presented a report of the proceedings in
Chicago. To them he replied, expressing his gratitude
for the confidence they had placed in him, and thanking
them for the unanimity of their action :
If chosen to fill the high office for which you have selected
me, I will give to its duties the same energy, the same spirit, and
the same will that I have given to the performance of all duties
which have devolved upon me heretofore. Whether I shall be
able to perform these duties to your entire satisfaction time will
determine. You have truly said, in the course of your address,
that I shall have no policy of my own to enforce against the
will of the people.
In his letter of acceptance, which soon followed, he
indorsed the proceedings of the convention, which seemed
to him to have been marked with wisdom, moderation,
and patriotism. He said it was impossible, however, or at
least eminently improper, to lay down a policy to be ad
hered to, right or wrong, through an administration of
four years.
New political issues not foreseen are constantly arising, and
the views of the public on them are constantly changing, and a
purely administrative officer should always be left free to execute
the will of the people.
After finishing his letter, which was short and simple,
he laid down his pen. After a moment's thought of the
torn and tortured South, he took up the pen again, and
added four significant words: " Let us have peace."
These words were at once taken up and echoed from
one end of the country to the other. They were called
" treacherous words of peace " by his enemies, but for the
most part they expressed the great longing which the
people had for tranquillity and deliverance from war and
the vengeance which follows war.
Interest in his daily doings became greater than ever
before, and reporters, friendly and unfriendly, were con
stantly at his door. His home was described at this time
as an " agreeable one, plainly showing the nature and
GRANT SAVES THE UNION PARTY 381
tastes of the occupant. Tall walnut bookcases surround
three sides of the library. Everything relating to the
business of war is there, with histories in abundance. On
the mantel is a cigar-stand, a bronzed statue of a drum
mer, and another of a bugler. Engravings of Washing
ton, Lincoln, Sherman, and Sheridan are on the walls.
Easy-chairs and lounges are placed carelessly about the
room, and the library is, without doubt, the most cheerful
and inviting apartment in the house. An oil-painting of
Sheridan and one of McPherson are prominently hung in
the parlors, and a marble bust and an engraving of Presi
dent Lincoln are also conspicuous."
Early in July the Democrats, assembling in New York
City, nominated Horatio Seymour of New York for
President, and General Frank P. Blair of Missouri for Vice-
President. The convention and its platform were almost
as completely Southern in sentiment as the Chicago con
vention had been Union in sentiment. As the conspicuous
figures at Chicago had been Logan and Sickles, it was
natural and appropriate that General Wade Hampton,
General N. B. Forest, and General Thomas L. Price should
be prominent in New York ; and, naturally, General John
A. McClernand was there to shake hands with Hampton
over plans to defeat Grant. The Democratic party had
no hope of success in the future without the aid of the
South, and every concession that could be safely made to
them appeared in the platform. The convention declared
against negro suffrage as a basis of reconstruction, but
admitted that the question of slavery and the question of
secession were settled for all time.
The platform was, in fact, a mixture of good and bad,
like the Republican platform. Neither party had a mo
nopoly of all the virtues. It had its appeal, this Democratic
pronunciamento, and it had its short-sighted and violent
prejudices. The convention reflected as in a mirror the
venomous hatred of the " copperhead Democracy " of the
North for the " black Republican " party. It was notable
that the Northern men were the most bitter and outspoken.
Johnson's policy was in a sense supported, but Johnson
himself ceased to be a factor. He was a political outcast;
382 LIFE OF GRANT
he had betrayed his own party, and failed to win the favor
of the other. The ticket was foredoomed to failure at the
start.
As the contest went on it became exceedingly acrid.
Nothing was too mean to be said. Grant was called the
" drunken tanner," the " butcher," and the " man on horse
back." According to the enlightened views of opposing
editors, the contest narrowed down to a choice between a
drunkard and a lunatic, and the nation was again about
to be lost.
Many of the Democratic papers in the North had per
sistently upheld Grant so long as they supposed him to be
still Democratic in feeling and closely in union with John
son. His nomination, however, by the Republican con
vention, by all the laws of political warfare, made every
Democrat the devoted and irresponsible assailant of the
head of the opposing ticket. Grant was appalled at the
storm which followed.
All over the nation, scavengers, unclean of mind and
purchasable of conscience, delved deep among the saloon
keepers and pot-houses of the cities wherein he had lived,
and pretended to bring to light stories of his drunkenness
and profligacy. The city of St. Louis furnished the larger
share of these stories; but opposition politicians in Cin
cinnati, New York, Galena, Sacket's Harbor, San Fran
cisco, and Portland added their contribution to the grow
ing collection. His life, according to these reports, had
been monstrous in its degrading acts. He was accused of
associating with the lowest and most drunken reprobates
in St. Louis and in Detroit. An article written by " An
Officer of the United States Army " appeared in a maga
zine published in New York, which restated with brutal
plainness the cause of his return from California in 1854.
The Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati papers gave
ready assistance in spreading these tales abroad over the
land, and one journal went so far as to detail a man to
follow General Grant about and secure damaging evidence
against him. Through the work of this man, every story
by every political jackal and road-house loafer was scraped
from the mire and given to the world, gleefully, and
GRANT SAVES THE UNION PARTY 383
without a word in deprecation or in question of its truth
fulness.
It was to be inferred that the Confederate brigadiers
would make unexpectedly mild speeches, and that all
the bitter invectives should be left to their copperhead
brethren in the North. This was the case. Hampton,
Forest, Gordon, Lee, left vitriolic vituperation to the
leaders of the North, who improved the opportunity to
the full. All was of little avail, however. The current
of the time set hard at the keel, the winds of fortune
rilled the sails of the Republican craft, and it swept for
ward in irresistible majesty.
Grant himself took no part in the campaign. As he
had not sought the office, so now he declined to work for
it. His party managers were much troubled by his course.
Nearly all his friends thought it unwise, and those who
were intimate enough to speak to him advised against it.
The entire party, they said, needed his advice. It was a
momentous struggle, and he should take the most active
part in it, being its leader in fact as well as in name.
He replied : " I do not care to give advice. If the peo
ple wish to make me President they will do so." He set
out for his little home in Galena, leaving directions that no
letters should be forwarded to him (at least, such as were
political in character), and there spent the intervening
weeks in comfort and peace. He did not return East
until November. In all this period only one or two of
the political people of consequence ventured to write to
him. Sherman, too, had determined to keep out of poli
tics, and so uttered no word in favor of his friend and
chief. His silence provoked criticism from others, but
it did not trouble Grant; he considered Sherman's posi
tion quite right; he even defended it. He attended no
political meetings, and went about the country very little.
His mornings were passed in reading and answering let
ters, or giving Badeau directions in reply to letters. He
read the newspapers closely, and talked freely concerning
the election. With intimate friends he went over the map
of the United States, saying quietly, but with perfect cer
tainty in his voice : " We shall carry this State, and that
384 LIFE OF GRANT
State, and that State." He became profoundly convinced
that he was to be elected. He never questioned it.
In the afternoon he drove or walked about the streets
of the little town like any other citizen, sat down with his
friend Rowley, or McClellan, or Chetlain, and talked over
neighborhood affairs as well as national affairs. He took
tea with the families of his old neighbors in the simple,
homely, Western fashion. Many transient visitors called
and were entertained at his house. There was no cere
mony in anything he did. It was a wonderful thing
to his neighbors — almost unrealizable — to think of him
quietly going about the streets of this little Western town,
bearing such high honors, and being the subject of such
mighty controversy in the nation.
On the day of election he accompanied his neighbors to
the polls, and cast his ballot for the entire Republican
ticket except for President.
" At about ten o'clock in the evening he went to Wash-
burne's house, not far from his own. Arrangements had
been made to receive the news, and there were in the
room a dozen citizens of Galena, and one or two corre
spondents. Every man present seemed more excited than
Grant He did not pretend to indifference, but I often
saw him show more interest over a game of cards than in
his election that night," writes Badeau.
At about two o'clock it was considered certain that the
Republicans had carried the day, and, standing on his
doorstep, General Grant addressed a little company of his
friends and fellow-citizens. He was perfectly calm and
unaffected in manner, but he used one expression which
those listening did not soon forget : " The responsibilities
of the position I feel, but accept them without fear."
CHAPTER XLII
GENERAL GRANT LAYS DOWN THE SWORD
THE President elect did not resign his commission as
chief of the army until he took the oath of office as
Chief Executive. He considered that the act of taking
the oath as President annulled his commission as general.
He was still the head of the army by the express terms of
the Constitution.
Inauguration day was cold and cloudy, but the streets
were almost as crowded as upon the day of the grand re
view four years before. The feeling among the spectators
gathered from all parts of the United States was one of
joy and hope. They firmly believed the nation had been
a second time saved by General Grant. By mid-forenoon
the sky began to clear, and those who were a bit fanciful
said one to the other: " It is going to clear; it will be a
fine day yet. Just so will it be with Grant's administra
tion. The general will carry us forward into the sunlight
of peace and prosperity."
At eleven o'clock, exactly as the general stepped out
upon the porch, the sun suddenly broke forth, flooding the
Presidential party with warm light, which symbolized the
vivid rays of fame which now beat hard upon the " Little
Man of Destiny."
He entered his own carriage, an ordinary park phaeton,
in company with General Rawlins. He had declined to
be accompanied by Andrew Johnson, who remained be
hind signing papers until twelve o'clock. Speaker Colfax,
with several members of Grant's staff, filled the second
carriage. The band of the Fifth Cavalry struck up " Hail
to trie Chief," the mounted column escort wheeled into
385
286 LIFE OF GRANT
column, and upon the signal of a cannon-shot the proces
sion moved up the avenue toward the Capitol.
The coming President was unimposing, as usual. He
wore a suit of plain dark clothes. His expression was
grave and his mood self-contained. The public was again
at fault. Many of the sight-seers had expected to see him
pass in full uniform, in a carriage drawn by six horses,
followed by his staff. They had expected a great histori
cal moment when the general of the army would lay down
his sword to become the President. Again General Grant
neglected his opportunity.
On the eastern side of the Capitol a broad platform had
been erected for the inauguration ceremonies, and before
it a vast throng had waited for hours the coming of the
President elect. At last the Supreme Court, filing out
with preternatural dignity, led the way for General Grant,
who walked forward to the little table at the center of the
platform. Behind him came Mr. Colfax and as many of
the senators as could find room.
As soon as the military organization drawn up below in
front of the platform obtained a sight of their general, they
raised a cheer, which was caught up and carried forward
by the waiting populace until lost in distance.
At this moment, standing at the topmost dizzy pinnacle
of national fame, a point to which he had climbed by vir
tue of his own honesty, persistency, and courage, Ulysses
Grant betrayed no embarrassment and little emotion. No
twitching muscle or flush of blood externalized whatever
he may have felt. With one foot a little advanced, and
head slightly bowed, he waited until Salmon P. Chase,
once his rival, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
stepped forward and held out a Bible. On this General
Grant laid his right hand reverently.
The chief justice then read the solemn words of the
official oath, and General Grant repeated them : " I do
solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of
President of the United States, and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
the United States."
The chief justice slightly raised his hand. The general
U. S. Grant not long before his first election as President, age 46 years
U. S. Grant soon after his first inauguration as President, age 47 years.
GENERAL GRANT LAYS DOWN THE SWORD 387
bent his head, lightly touching the Bible with his lips.
Ulysses S. Grant had ceased to be general of the army,
and had become the Chief Executive of the nation. The
boom of the cannon announced for miles around the tri
umphant tidings that he who had saved the nation in
time of war had sworn now to preserve it in peace.
He began his inaugural address by saying that he
would express his views to Congress, and urge them ac
cording to his judgment, and would use the constitutional
privilege of veto to defeat measures which he opposed, but
that all laws would be faithfully executed, whether they
met his approval or not. " I shall have a policy to rec
ommend," he said, "but none to enforce against the will
of the people." He knew no method to secure the repeal
of bad laws so effective as their stringent execution. The
country, just having emerged from a great civil war, nat
urally had questions to meet which other administrations
had not dealt with, and it was desirable to approach these
questions calmly, without hatred or sectional prejudice,
striving always for the greatest good to the greatest
number.
He touched also upon the heavy debt which had been
contracted, and suggested that every dollar of the govern
ment's indebtedness should be paid in gold unless other
wise stipulated. How the public debt was to be paid, or
specie payments resumed, was not so important as that a
plan should be adopted. A united determination to do
was worth more than divided counsels upon how to do it.
He promised to do his best to appoint to office those
who would execute all laws in good faith, and collect and
disburse all revenues honestly.
With regard to his foreign policy, he promised to deal
with nations as equitable law requires individuals to deal
with each other, and to protect all law-abiding citizens,
whether native or of foreign birth, wherever their rights
were jeopardized and the stars and stripes floated.
The proper treatment of the Indian, he said, was one
deserving of careful study. " I will favor any course to
ward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate
citizenship."
388 LIFE OF GRANT
With regard to suffrage, it seemed to him very desirable
that the question should be settled at once, and he enter
tained the hope and expressed the desire to see the ratifi
cation of the Fifteenth Amendment. In conclusion, he
said :
" I would ask patient forbearance one toward another
throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part
of every citizen toward cementing a happy union, and I
ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf
of this consummation."
The President commenced reading his address in a voice
of ordinary conversational key, but soon allowed it to
drop so low as to be unheard even upon the platform.
During the whole of the reading, Mrs. Grant, her daugh
ter, and several ladies sat cramped up behind the judges
of the Supreme Court. At last the little daughter Nellie,
becoming tired of her position, made her way to the
President's side, and stood beside him for several minutes
while he read. At length, a chair being given her, she
took a seat just behind the general.
The crowd, divining this to be his daughter, was pro
foundly moved by the contrast of the delicate little girl
standing beside the stern commander of the Wilderness
while he proclaimed in severe Anglo-Saxon speech the
policy by which he would be guided during his adminis
tration of the affairs of the United States.
After the delivery of the speech, President Grant and
Vice-President Colfax returned to the White House, and
were received by Secretary Schofield, General Grant's
staff, and a few friends. In answer to an inquiry, the
President said he would not hold a reception. He was
very grave, very reticent even with his intimate friends.
In that way alone he expressed the deep emotion he felt.
The throngs without would not accept this word as final,
and remained for hours waiting about the gates ; but at
last they came to understand that President Grant wished
to become President as simply as possible.
In the evening a grand inauguration reception and ball
was held in the north wing of the White House. Every
military, naval, and political man of note was present.
GENERAL GRANT LAYS DOWN THE SWORD 389
There was no exclusiveness ; it was a national gathering.
It represented all classes of society, all sections of the
Union, and almost every race on the face of the earth.
Whether it added to the happiness of General Grant is
doubtful. Without question it was the supreme moment
in the life of his loyal wife.
The President's address excited the most intense ex
citement. It was at once seized upon and twisted hard to
wring some sinister meaning from it. Mainly it was ap
proved. It was considered to be like him, firm, but gentle,
sincere, and perfectly lucid. Only one paper in the North
considered it " empty and self-confident, and at the same
time servile." To others it read " like the bulletin of a
great general." In the South it was well received.
Naturally the Southern editors could not be expected to
cry out in admiration, but they acknowledged that the
document " manifested a most catholic and winning spirit
toward the whole country " ; nor did they fail to remark
the " absence of the familiar vocabulary of the radical
party." Every one knew exactly what the President
meant; he had intended to express, not to conceal, his
ideas.
For just one week this calm and beautiful period of
almost universal approbation lasted, and then the pickets
of the opposition began firing again. One by one, the
regiments behind took it up, and before three months had
passed the roar of assault was again sounding throughout
the entire Democratic army.
There had been a most intense curiosity concerning his
cabinet. It could not be anticipated, for he had taken no
one into his confidence, not even Mrs. Grant. Rawlins
was almost heartbroken over this silence on the part of
his chief, for he had expected to be appointed Secretary
of War. He became ill in his anxiety, and Washburne of
Illinois, who wished to be Secretary of the Treasury, but
to whom Grant uttered no word of promise during this
time, also became much depressed. Nothing but the
faintest rumors of the men Grant had selected were ob
tainable up to the very moment of his message to the
Senate.
390 LIFE OF GRANT
Most of the nominations were a surprise. For Secretary
of State he had named his friend Washburne of Illinois.
For Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. A. T. Stewart, the
great merchant of New York City. It was expected that
Washburne would be nominated for some office, but the
selection of Stewart was wholly unanticipated. He had
been chosen because it seemed to Grant that a successful
man of business ought to be successful in taking care of
the financial affairs of the nation. For Secretary of the
Navy he sent in the name of Mr. A. E. Borie, a wealthy
merchant of Philadelphia, who was more completely sur
prised than anybody else in the nation. He was not an
intimate friend, but he was a man of high character, and
had been a warm supporter of the Northern cause. Ex-
Governor J. D. Cox of Ohio as Secretary of the Interior,
the Hon. H. A. Creswell of Maryland as Postmaster-Gen
eral, and the Hon. E. Rockwood Hoar as Attorney- Gen
eral, completed the list. General John M. Schofield, who
was serving at the time as Secretary of War ad interim,
was retained in that position for a week, with the under
standing that John A. Rawlins was to take his place.
Schofield had proved himself his friend in his position,
when he might have been an enemy, and in recognition of
this he was made the first Secretary of War.
As a matter of fact, the whole cabinet in less than a
week was disintegrated. Mr. Stewart, according to an
old clause of the Constitution, was found to be ineligible
unless he surrendered his private business. Washburne,
who had asked to be appointed Secretary of the Treasury,
had been given his second choice, which was to be minis
ter to France, with the further compliment of being Sec
retary of State for a week. He wished to be counted in
historically with the Grant cabinet, and argued that to
hold the position of Secretary of State even for a week
would give him greater consideration abroad. This, out
of consideration for Washburne's loyal friendship in the
past, the President agreed to, although it brought him
much trouble and criticism.
At the end of the week the position was offered to
James F. Wilson of Iowa, who declined it because it was
GENERAL GRANT LAYS DOWN THE SWORD 391
too expensive. Grant then sent General Babcock to urge
ex- Governor Hamilton Fish to accept it and save the ad
ministration from further embarrassment. This he did,
after some hesitation. George S. Boutwell was hurriedly
selected to fill Stewart's place in the Treasury ; but as he
and the Attorney- General were both from Massachusetts,
the critics began to grumble.
The whole matter of getting the cabinet together was
very annoying and embarrassing, and the trouble arose
from General Grant's military habit of secrecy, from his
idea of command, and also from his slight acquaintance
among men of large affairs. His life in the army and in
the West had not brought him in contact with many men
of national reputation. He knew soldiers ; he did not
know statesmen. As for politicians, he disliked and dis
trusted them, and in his attempt to establish a cabinet
without scheming politicians he became entangled in worse
mistakes.
With his cabinet at last in position, he began his work.
The administration was military at the start ; there was no
question about that; the times were military. Generals
were the President's secretaries, and colonels were his
messengers ; the White House became his headquarters.
He went further: he regarded even his cabinet ministers
as staff- officers, who should be his personal friends, ready
to carry out, with him, the orders of the people. All of
this, of course, provoked immediate criticism, and certain
senators objected strongly to receiving messages at the
hands of an officer in the regular army, who should be
attending to his military duties. They forgot that, as
constitutional head of the army and navy, the President
had a right to command his subordinates to serve him.
Among the first acts of his new office was to send in
nominations for promotions in the army. Just as in days
before, when, having moved up a notch himself, he had
lifted others, so now he carried Sherman, Sheridan, Scho-
field, and Rawlins with him. Sherman was made general,
and Sheridan became lieutenant-general in Sherman's
stead. Schofield, leaving the War Department to Raw
lins, became major-general in Sheridan's stead, while
392 LIFE OF GRANT
C. C. Auger (one of Grant's old classmates), who had long
been in command in Washington, slipped into Schofield's
vacant room. Another early order, and a very significant
one, restored Sheridan to his command at New Orleans,
from which he had been removed by Johnson. General
Terry was sent to command Georgia, and General J. J.
Reynolds (the professor who recommended Captain Grant
for county engineer in St. Louis) was sent to command in
Texas, while General Frank P. Blair was relieved of com
mand on the coast. The radical North felt a thrill of jubi
lation at the news of Sheridan's reinstatement. Andrew
Johnson and all that he represented had passed away.
Among his earliest civil acts was the nomination of
General James Longstreet to be surveyor of the port of
New Orleans. This did not please the radicals so well as
Blair's removal, but it was, in point of fact, an excellent
thing to do. It was not only the recognition of a great
and honorable soldier, but it tended to show that President
Grant was not to be the ruler of one section of the coun
try, but of every State in the Union. In the South Gen
eral Longstreet was quite generally abused for accepting
the position at the hands of his late adversary; but the
broad-minded citizens everywhere took it to mean friend
ship and good will and confidence on the part of the Presi
dent. The appointment of Sheridan was taken to mean
that if States were to be in the Union, they must conform
to its laws, and that if they conformed to its laws they
would not be disturbed.
The wind of politics is fickle. Not two months had
elapsed before certain of the Republican journals were
sharply criticizing the administration. They accused each
other of " trying to run Grant " after he was elected.
Some of them claimed that Washburne, Rawlins, the Dents,
and the Caseys had been let in a private way before the
public door to the feast had been opened ; that Washburne
had staggered off with the piece de resistance; that the
Dents and Caseys had secured the pates and the pastries ;
while Russell Jones and a few other Galenaites had moved
upon the charlotte russes, and little but crust was left for
the after-comers.
GENERAL GRANT LAYS DOWN THE SWORD 393
Mr. Washburne was accused of naming forty-eight for-
eign appointees on the strength of a mere personal com
pliment. As the names of other appointees began to go to
the public press the charges of nepotism were seriously
made. The President was accused of appointing all his
brothers-in-law to office. The opposition papers called
attention to this fact, with facetious remarks concerning
the " plague of Dents." " As a matter of fact he has ap
pointed very few of his own people to office," said the
friendly journals. It might be said with greater justice
that he has appointed his wife's people to office." The
Dents were said to be " worse than the Todds in the Lin
coln administration."
The President was accused of making friendship the test
of fitness for office (and there was truth in that), and of
giving offices to men who had made presents to him, which
was not so true. He gave the appointments to men be
cause they were friends, and not because they gave gifts.
Pie was incapable of supposing his friends to be selfish.
The tests which he applied to a man were not always
sufficiently searching. If a man was his friend, and could
do some one thing well, he was apt to think that he could
do greater things equally well. Friendship was one of the
strongest forces in Grant's character, and now that he had
the power to reward those who had been true to him in
his adversity, he had the will to do so. He had the will
to be loyal in his prosperity. This may not have been
the attitude of the ideal statesman, but it was very human.
His election to office was due to great ability and to a
great national uprising. He had no social claims whatever.
He came of the common people, and his civil life had been
among men of small concerns. He, rising to a peak from
these low levels, moved by some elemental force beneath,
carried with him his friends and neighbors, among them
men like Rawlins and Webster and Sheridan and McPher-
son, and scores of civilians. They were not necessary to
him, but he was necessary to them, although he would
have been the last to say so. Every man who had stood
by him when he was in shadow had an indisputable claim
upon him now that he was in sunlight, and he turned
394 LIFE OF GRANT
naturally to them in dispensing the rewards of office. He
lifted hundreds from obscurity and poverty to well-paid
official positions. Offices must go to some one, and why
not to honest and faithful friends of our adversity? On
the basis of this argument, he made Charles Ford collector
at St. Louis, he sent Russell Jones to Belgium and Gen
eral Chetlain to Brussels, and made editor Houghton con
sul to Lahaine in the Sandwich Islands. He listened to
the voices of those whom he had known and respected,
and granted their requests. This was not criminal in
itself, but it turned out badly in some cases, and gave
rise to scandal. Some of these appointments came about
directly ; most of them were made by congressmen and
senators. He did not like to have his friends apply for
office, but politicians thought to ingratiate themselves by
advocating those who stood near him. His friendships
were traded upon shamelessly, that must be admitted.
He was a most loyal friend, but he was also a good
hater. He often held out amazingly, almost criminally, in
favor of an accused friend ; but when he knew a man had
played him false, he became granite and iron. Treachery
he never forgave. An open enemy he honored ; duplicity
he abhorred. In the distribution of favors during his term
of power, he never forgot a friend, and he seldom forgave
a man who had deliberately deceived or betrayed him. It
was on this principle that he made General Longstreet
surveyor of the port at New Orleans, and relieved General
Frank P. Blair of command.
It was a year of most desperate office-seeking. The
close of the war had let loose a flood of men who had lost
their grip on civil life, and who found it impossible to re
turn to the ordinary humdrum ways of getting a living.
These men now swarmed around the hotels of Washington,
and invaded the White House like the plague of locusts.
Spoliation of public funds seemed to have become suddenly
the chief ambition of thousands.
In a letter to his sister Mary, before the end of March,
the President said :
I scarcely get one moment alone. Office-seeking is getting
to be one of the industries of the age. It gives me no peace.
GENERAL GRANT LAYS DOWN THE SWORD 395
These political beggars not only besieged him, but they
alighted upon Jesse Grant and his wife, and upon every
second and third cousin. Grant had been very careful of
using his influence while general of the army, even to aid
his most intimate friends. He did not like to have men
appeal to him for office, and this was generally known ;
therefore until he became President he had not become
fully aware of th'> office-seeking horde. His principal
task for the first year was the sad task of turning back
the lean and hungry kine who wished to feed at public
expense.
His critics had said : " Grant is not fit to govern, for he
has no idea of a republican form of government." But in
this lay a gross exaggeration. It is true his mind was es
sentially military, and his government, so far as the ex
ecutive department was concerned, was personal and
absolute. He made it evident at the start that he was in
very fact the head of the executive, but he was careful to
maintain the distinction between the legislative, judicial,
and executive departments. He was ready to consider
the acts of Congress binding upon the Executive as well
as upon the nation, for he regarded congressional enact
ment as the direct expression of the will of the majority.
If he interposed a veto, it was to show his personal views.
If the measure passed over his head, it became law, and
he executed it as promptly as though he had himself
formulated it.
He was never anxious to escape responsibility, and did
not expect the country to hold his cabinet responsible for
his personal opinions. Conversely, he did not care to have
dissensions within his official family. The cabinet was
not a place for a dissenter. He would not endure a man
who assumed to dictate, and, above all, he held in detesta
tion a man who played two parts. These considerations
will explain much of the shame and most of the weakness
of his cabinet. He chose the members as friends and
subordinates rather than as statesmen and advisers.
CHAPTER XLII1
GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE
FROM the very moment of General Grant's acceptance
of the oath of office, it became evident that another
great commoner had entered the Presidential Mansion.
Everything he did was marked with the same simplicity
and lack of display which surprised and pleased the peo
ple when he was chief of the army. He continued to
come and go about the streets alone and unattended,
looking just the same, acting quite the same, as when
general-in-chief at City Point, with, however, something
intangible added to his mien to speak subtly of the great
experiences he had been through and the great command
he had exercised. He was often to be met driving his
horse along Pennsylvania Avenue, or in the early morning
taking a brisk walk to Georgetown and back.
Stories abound with regard to his simplicity and sin
cerity of manner. While it is true that he accepted the
society of the rich, at the same time any old friend from
Georgetown or St. Louis, or any old soldier, was sure of
a hearing, and if their requests were proper they were
granted instantly and as a matter of pleasure. He gave
away large sums of money to people who made some
sentimental demand upon him. He assisted wherever his
soft heart was touched, and he assisted unworthy people
at times; but he did not like to have people apply for
office.
There is an element of pathos in the fact that his mother
was not present at the inauguration. She never saw
Washington, never saw her son surrounded by the evi-
396
Hannah Simpson Grant, mother of General Grant.
From an original photograph owned by Helen M. Burke of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE 397
dences of his great power and attainment. Uncle Jesse
was present, with his daughter Jennie, but they were not
marked figures. Not for them were the splendors of the
White House. It is related of the general's mother that
a friend, calling upon her at about the time of inaugura
tion, found her moving quietly about the small home in
Covington, Kentucky, which she kept in order with her
own work-scarred hands. When the friend said, " It must
make you very proud to think of your son being made
President," she murmured an inaudible word; and when
asked the direct question, " Would n't you like to be
present at the ceremony? " she looked as though she had
not heard the visitor's voice, and did not reply. She was
the mother of the man.
The Dents, however, were in evidence. Naturally, Mrs.
Grant desired her family to be with her, and her sisters,
Mrs. Sharpe and Mrs. Casey, as well as her father and
brother, became residents in Washington, and were often
at the White House. Colonel Dent, old, gray, irascible,
and unreconstructed, was able at last to sit under the roof-
tree of his " no-account son-in-law," and find that roof-
tree one under which a long line of Presidents had lived.
Old Jesse Grant occasionally came on during the ad
ministration, and put up at a cheap hotel not far from the
Executive Mansion. He called on his son, or went driv
ing with him, but did not seek close companionship with
autocratic Father Dent. They remained irreconcilable,
and mutually pitied and despised each other. They rep
resented widely separated ideals of citizenship.
During the first summer the President spent some
weeks at Long Branch, exposed to all the gaieties, forms,
and ceremonies of fashionable society, which he bore with
most patiently, even to attempting the lancers. It was a
hard situation for a plain old soldier whose lines of life
had lain far from such scenes. It brought out a curious
phase of his nature : it defined his limitations. " Madam,
I had rather storm a fort than attempt another dance," he
once said to his partner.
The many receptions to which he was subjected during
this time brought out one of the most marvelous of his
39^ LIFE OF GRANT
mental endowments — his memory. He seemed to forget
nothing. He never seemed to scrutinize any person or
thing, and yet he remembered, without effort, everything
which passed before his eyes. He never forgot a face.
A thousand cases might be cited to show his astounding
memory for faces ; nothing in history exceeds it. He
could remember every one he had ever seen, even for a
moment, though scores of years might have intervened,
and a million other personalities have filed before him.
This power cannot be exaggerated, nor the value of it
overestimated.
In Washington during the second winter society con
tinued to be a secondary thing. The war had not yet
passed away as a visible presence, and the general was
almost as military in his daily habit as when a commander-
in-chief; that is to say, he attended strictly to his work,
and his work was the need of governing a nation nearly
half of which was under martial law.
His summers were spent at Long Branch, which he liked
exceedingly. During the second year he purchased a
couple of plots of land there, and built two modest cot
tages, one for his own use, and one to rent. He took his
horses with him during his second year, and his principal
amusement was driving. Each day he whirled away into
the country, and soon came to know every lane and by
way for miles. This diversion was innocent enough, one
would think, but it did not escape the attention of his
enemies.
His turnouts were described as the most magnificent
ever seen. Each brass mounting became solid gold. His
little cottages were exaggerated into mansions, and every
possible epithet was employed to make it appear that he
was addicted to fast horses and fast living. He was said to
" show already the effects of the larder and the wine-cel
lar." The cartoonists represented him as a heavy, sullen
man, followed about by two equally sullen bull-pups. He
was called the " dog-fancier," when, as a matter of fact,
he had never owned a dog in his life, and could not bear
to have them around him.
On his part, he said he went away from Washington in
GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE 399
the summer to escape the persecution of office-seekers and
newspaper men, but found little freedom even there. He
was suffering the penalty of being President in a land of
free speech and free press. After a few weeks of this
partial escape from care, the papers began to howl about
"seaside loiterings" and "absenteeism." He was forced
to return to Washington, even though nothing could really
be transacted there.
Notwithstanding all the talk about military sentinels,
secretaries, and forms, he remained the most absolutely
accessible President in a long line of Presidents. Any
one could reach him and talk with him, and everybody
did — Indians, negroes, Southerners, Northerners, beggars,
everybody, anybody. True, he did not talk to them,
but he listened to what they had to say patiently, if not
courteously. He was always impatient of injustice and
sympathetic of the poor. His friend George W. Curtis
considered him generous to a fault, and tried to keep
beggars from him.
He was absolutely non-esthetic. In his world the
word " art " had very little meaning; of painting, sculpture,
he knew nothing, of the drama next to nothing. He did
not cultivate the society of writers or scholars, and was not
at ease with them. His life had been serious, but it had led
along roads far separated from art and music. The politi
cal world has no need of and little tolerance for the finer
qualities of life, and the four years of the war and the
three years of reconstruction had added little to General
Grant's acquirements in ways that would fit him for the
social duties bearing upon the head of the nation. He
was dignified and self-contained always, but never what
could be called polished or courtly in manner. When his
thought might offend, he kept silence, speaking only when
it became necessary to do so. He was always considerate
and deferential to women, but in no sense gallant. He
had never had, even in youth, the slightest touch of the
manners of a beau.
Mrs. Grant was almost equally plain and simple in her
manners. Her education was even less liberal than her
husband's. St. Louis in her youth was a small Western
400 LIFE OF GRANT
town, and its educational facilities were not high. Her
schooling was all attained before she was seventeen years
of age. Thereafter she was, like the general himself, self-
educated. She had, however, the American woman's
power of adaptation, and she had, also, the early training
of a Southern woman in hospitality, and had the desire to
use and enjoy all the social pleasures connected with her
husband's high office. She delighted in receptions and
parties, and was never bored or wearied by them. Even
before election, as General Grant's wife, she had begun
to hold successful receptions, and had managed by some
means to make the general take part in them.
Grant was not a reader ; that is to say, he read for in
formation — to obtain light on the subject in hand, not for
general information. He made a point of going to the
bottom of every subject upon which he was called upon
to render judgment, and often amazed specialists by the
width and accuracy of his information ; but all this was
not reading in the ordinary sense. He studied the news
papers with keen scrutiny, but he was too busy and too
much involved in practical affairs to sit down of an even
ing in his library and read on general lines of culture and
for enjoyment. He played cards for diversion, or sat in
conversation with his friends. He enjoyed talk and con
versation, even when he did not join in it. He was an
extremely social man. He had few intimate friends, but
those few he loved to visit. " He was absolutely unap
proachable, save by his friends," said Colonel Nicolay.
" Any one could come into his presence ; he had no forms
or ceremonies; but only a few people could get at his
thought. ... I have seen a man talk to Grant listening in
rigid irresponse till, in sheer self-defense, the visitor was
forced to rise and flee from the President's terrible accus
ing silence."
Society in those days in Washington was divided very
markedly into two classes — the Republican and transitory
society, and the resident society, which was almost entirely
Southern in sentiment. During the Lincoln administra
tion the aristocratic secession families held no intercourse
with the "vulgarian who occupied the White House";
GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE 401
and during the Grant administration most of these rebel
lious ones continued to hold aloof. The White House
was called the " Dents' Retreat." In their estimation, the
Grants were very plain and unimposing people indeed.
According to sly remark, they were " distressingly bour
geois." Their plain, homely Western manners were ridi
culed. " What a pity we have not a gentleman in the
White House!" deplored some of the plain-spoken dames
to whom Lincoln had been the " boor," the " gorilla,"
and to whom Grant was the " dummy" and the " smoky
Caesar." He was openly called a " rude man of vulgar
tastes," an accident of war, and the tool of a military ring.
These critics lashed themselves into a fury which is won
derful to read about.
The White House receptions were attended, therefore,
very largely by the officers of the army, the office-holders,
and the visiting Republicans. Those who had been
prominent at public functions in Buchanan's time knew
nothing of what went on there, except by hearsay. They
were quite ready to believe (and to spread) the stories of
drunkenness on the part of the President, and the reported
blunders in etiquette committed by his wife. Everything
he did was exposed to the most devouring light of pub
licity. No President had ever had the search-light of
reportorial curiosity so vividly cast upon him.
It will be seen that the position carried with it certain
social difficulties. The President was unfitted by all his
training for the niceties of social intercourse. He had
refused to take dancing-lessons at West Point, and his life
had been spent far from cities and among the rude sur
roundings of camp and cantonment life. Forms and cere
monies faced him now at every turn, and had it not been
for the manly seriousness of his thought and the inherent
considerateness of his nature, he would have been un
pleasantly brusque in manner. As a matter of fact he was
never awkward, never flurried, though he might be distrait
and unresponsive and sometimes inelegant. He was always
the same in public — reserved, composed, self-restrained.
When he first came East to receive his nomination as
chief of all the armies, his look and bearing — as John
402 LIFE OF GRANT
Burroughs testified — were distinctly countrified. This
appearance had partly worn away. He had gained greater
self-control under social pressure, and had attained a con
ception of what was due him in his position. He had
great native dignity, also, though it was unobtrusive. His
voice, so soft and gentle, was very impressive, was capable
of inexorable inflections.
" At first he was inclined to make a visit upon any one
whom he liked, whether they had first called upon him or
not. It was some time before he consented to wear the
conventional swallowtail coat, and the white tie he par
ticularly disliked. But when he discovered that it was
easier to conform than to hold out against these regula
tions, he acquiesced. When he ascertained the impor
tance put upon visits, in this world of high officialdom, he
insisted they should be paid and returned punctiliously.
He considered his friends in this more than himself. He
had no wish to neglect or offend."
While sphinx-like and austere in public, he was in pri
vate a very social man. He delighted in the presence
of brilliant talkers. He enjoyed the company of bright
women. He was a hard man to entertain, however.
" He would sit and listen and listen^ without saying a
word, having a good time all along, but letting his com
panion do the talk." He liked young people, and the
boys playing ball behind the White House sometimes had
him for spectator and made him umpire in their games.
Occasionally he took a hand at the bat, to the delight of
the boys, who loved him and had no awe of him. " After
playing awhile, he put his hands behind him, and strolled
away down the avenue. He seemed a kind and fatherly
man to us."
Very early in his career in the White House, an old
friend from Cincinnati, in making a call upon him, saw
the two natures of the man most dramatically set forth.
They were in full tide of talk. The President, very easy
and genuine, was voicing reminiscences without the slight
est assumption of reserve. His face was aglow and his
voice tender. There was nothing to remind his visitor
that he was talking to the President of the United
GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE 403
States — to the " sullen bull-dog warrior," or to the
" sphinx."
A visitor was announced in the outer chamber. A
delegation, perhaps, of politicians was waiting. Grant
arose, walked through the open door into the public office,
and faced his callers. In those few steps he was trans
formed into the " enigma " and the " man of iron." With
head slightly bent, with thin lips closed, he listened in
absolute silence during the strenuous statement of his
callers. Then, uttering a few words in a low voice, he
turned abruptly on his heel, reentered the private office,
took his seat opposite his friend, and entered again upon
an animated conversation concerning old times and old
friends in Ohio. " He could be granite — by the Lord, he
could be granite," said an old subordinate ; and many an
office-seeker found this out.
He still continued to walk in the street like any other
citizen, but there were certain things which he no longer
felt free to do. " He did not ride in the street-car while
he was President, although often before he had mortified
his staff and his family by using that democratic convey
ance," says Badeau. " He was careful whom he visited, and
regarded etiquette scrupulously in this matter, selecting the
company and arranging the order of seats at his dinners."
He was not responsive. He had no light talk. He very
seldom helped people out of conversational difficulty. As
we have shown, he waited for them to finish ; he did not
help them to speak. In his public receptions he shook
hands with all, but no word of his aided them through
their embarrassments. This, however, was negative. On
his positive side, he was careful not to injure the feelings
of others. He never gossiped, neither would he permit
it about him. No one presumed to become obscene in his
presence. At the same time, he was not a man of keenly
sensitive presence. He reeked with tobacco. He was the
most appalling smoker of his time, with Edwin Booth
a close second. His cigars were black, rank, poisonous,
and he consumed immense quantities of them. Aside
from this habit, his presence was pleasant. His hands
were well cared for and his clothes in order.
404 LIFE OF GRANT
A correspondent from the Old World was surprised to
find the Capitol grounds unguarded, the gates unlocked,
and the ruler of the nation dwelling in an open palace, as
if the United States were peopled with none but honest
men and friends. The White House seemed a shabby
residence for a great ruler, but the President made him
self so agreeable that the visitor soon forgot the discom
forts of the house.
Like all great men, he is simplicity itself. I had heard a great
deal of the gallant soldier, but I never felt more impressed. He
talks little. If possible, he receives every one. I found this
great man affable and just in his remarks, courteous in his
demeanor, and the mode in which he shakes hands told me at
once of his sincerity and honesty. None of his portraits do him
justice. His head is larger than any of the portraits represent.
His beard is fair, and there is a peculiar softness in his eyes.
And in the few sentences with which he favored me I perceived
the most robust common sense. I left the Executive Mansion
convinced that the United States had an honest man at its head
—a soldier with an iron will.
And with a flash of prophetic insight, the writer con
cluded :
And God knows how soon his skill may be required to put
down enemies at home or abroad.
He was very considerate of his wife. Within certain
well-defined limits, he deferred to her judgment. He did
whatever was possible to add to her comfort and happi
ness. She came first in all his thoughts. He was accus
tomed to come down to the drawing-room on the days
when she received her friends, and move about among
them most informally and with apparent pleasure. He
was entirely devoted to his children, and when they were
at home often denied himself to the public in order to
enjoy their presence to the full. More than once these
days of seclusion with his family gave rise to unjust sus
picion and cruel comment on the part of his enemies.
One day Mrs. Grant, after describing a cameo which a
GRANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE 405
friend had just shown her, and which she much admired,
said to the President: " Ulysses, I want a profile of you."
"Oh, have n't I had pictures enough taken?" he pro
tested.
" No," replied Mrs. Grant; " you have n't a single pro
file view, and I want one."
After a moment's hesitation, and with a little sigh, he
said: "Very well; you shall have one."
A day or two later the family was appalled to see the
President of the United States enter the room wearing
English mutton-chop whiskers, and looking like an Epis
copal clergyman. His mustache was shaved away clean,
and his chin completely exposed. For an instant they
hardly knew him ; he seemed like another person.
"Why, Ulysses, what have you been doing?" cried
Mrs. Grant, in vast astonishment and dismay.
" I 've been having a profile taken," he replied.
In his absent-minded simplicity, and with his accus
tomed thoroughness, he had fought the battle clear
through. He had given her a genuine profile, unobstructed
by a single hair! Thus it happens that there is at least
one picture of General Grant in existence which shows
the rugged line of his profile face.
CHAPTER XLIV
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY
THE administration pushed steadily forward along the
lines of the first message. Civil-service reform was
persistently urged upon Congress, and the President's
peaceful Indian policy was put into effect. His recom
mendation that the Fifteenth Amendment be adopted had
carried it triumphantly through. General amnesty was
recommended. Virginia was admitted early in 1870, and
was followed by Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas ; and the
Union was nominally restored, but only nominally, for the
South was determined to exclude the carpet-baggers and
the negroes from their legislative halls, and to stop the
reckless legislation which had already buried them beneath
a load of debt. It was manifest that a condition which
sent Northern politicians and presiding elders of the colored
church to represent the South in the United States Senate
could not last.
Meanwhile, some of Grant's great companion figures were
passing away. Rawlins lived only till September ; Stanton
died early in the new year, and so did Thomas. The
friends of Thomas always claimed that their hero had been
neglected by Grant in favor of Sheridan and Sherman,
and that the " Rock of Chickamauga " was the great
soldier of the war. General Meade died not long after,
and his son claimed that Sheridan had been promoted in
the regular service over his father's head. Stanton felt
that his work had never been fully appreciated by the
nation, and probably Grant sympathized with him in this
406
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 407
feeling, for he appointed him to a seat on the supreme
bench. Stanton's gratitude was deep and outspoken.
He was unable at the time to leave his room, but he
wrote a beautiful letter of acknowledgment. He died
soon after, with a feeling that Grant, at least, had not
neglected him.
The claims of the friends of the great generals and
public men whom Grant had defeated or supplanted were
perfectly natural and unavoidable. They arose out of the
inability of an unsuccessful candidate to admit the entire
worthiness of the successful man.
Early in his term the President appointed a commission
to study Santo Domingo and report on the advisability of
annexing it. He moved in this vigorously, because he
considered it important in its bearings upon the conditions
of the South. He conceived that the acquirement of this
island by the United States would afford an outlet for the
negroes, and so compel better treatment of those who
remained. It would be an open doorway for possible
escape. He met with the most violent opposition, how
ever. Charles Sumner became his most violent assailant,
charging corruption and an imperial use of power on the
part of the President.
The annexation plan was rejected, but five months later
the President brought the matter up again, and recom
mended the investigation of the whole matter by a com
mittee. He had been accused, and he demanded that
Sumner's accusations be taken up and sifted. Congress
authorized the commission, and the President appointed
Andrew D. White, President of Cornell University, Senator
Wade of Ohio, and Dr. S. G. Howe (a close friend of his
accuser, Senator Sumner) as the members of the commis
sion. As the commission was about to set forth, he called
Andrew D. White aside, and said, with the sternest yet
most quiet inflections :
" As President of the United States, I have no orders
to give you. My duty as President ended with your
nomination. As a man, I have a right to give some in
structions. It has been publicly charged that I am con
nected with transactions in the island of Santo Domingo
408 LIFE OF GRANT
looking to my personal advantage. Now, as a man, I
charge you strictly that if you find that I am, directly or
indirectly, in the least degree connected with any such
transactions in the island of Santo Domingo, drag me forth
and expose me fully to the American people."
The commissioners unanimously sustained the President
in their report, and completely exonerated him from the
slightest complicity with any doubtful transaction ; but
Sumner, embittered because Grant refused to accede to
his demands for office for his friends, and for other reasons,
kept up his relentless warfare to the end.
The President was called upon at once to deal with the
Kuklux Klan, which had grown to enormous and wide
spread power; and at last, at the request of the governor
of South Carolina, he summoned the Klan to disperse within
thirty days, and sent a message to Congress, asking for
specific legislation to enable him to enforce the constitu
tional amendment. The lower house passed a bill which
gave him power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus
wherever he found it necessary to keep the peace, and
substitute therefor martial law. The Senate concurred in
the act. This was a dangerous and arbitrary measure,
and likely to be misused under any man's hand, but it
seemed necessary at the time. Grant was in earnest in his
determination to stop murder and intimidation.
In the main the administration kept in line with popular
wish. So far as he knew, the President conformed to the
will of the majority. It was the desire of the North that
the negro should be protected in all his civil rights; that
he should be educated; that he should hold office, when
qualified ; and that the spirit represented by the Kuklux
should be crushed out.
All these were undoubtedly war measures, which Grant
was as eager to leave behind as any individual patriot
could possibly be. Beyond such enactment, the better
citizens of the nation desired to see the public debt re
duced, government service economized, and all forms of
transportation and industry encouraged in order that the
new lands of the West might be settled and improved.
They had little complaint to make of the President. Only
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 409
the idealists had any honest grievance against Grant, and
their mistake consisted in applying the judgments of peace
to a time of warfare; for while the South was conquered
and nominally at peace, the war spirit survived naturally
in other forms. The conditions demanded of the consti
tutional head of the army and navy a larger exercise of
the purely military side of his official nature than would
have been called out ten years later.
The first serious charge made against him personally
arose in September during his first year. A clique of
stock-brokers arranged a corner in gold, to the dismay and
panic of trade. The general had indiscreetly allowed him
self to partake of the hospitalities of Mr. James Fisk, Jr.,
and Mr. Jay Gould, two of the leaders in this movement.
It also appeared that Mr. A. R. Corbin, who had married
the President's sister, was concerned in this gold specula
tion, and therefore the ready enemies of the President
boldly announced that he himself was implicated, and
that he had given to these men private intimations of
what was to be the policy of the government with regard
to gold. y
To this serious charge the general was obliged to reply.
He admitted that he had accepted the hospitality of Mr.
Fisk, and that Mr. Fisk had attempted to secure from him
private information, but that he had rebuked him by ask
ing, "Would that be fair?" and had further said to Mr.
Fisk : " You will get your information in precisely the
same way that the whole country will be informed, —
through the notice of the Treasurer of the United States
to the newspapers, — thus excluding any possible charge
of favoritism."
His friends also claimed that not only had he refused
to give such information, but that immediately upon
learning the condition of affairs he had ordered the Trea
sury to sell five millions of gold, which at once relieved
the market and stopped the rush. He was at the time
visiting a cousin in Washington, Pennsylvania, a little
town some distance from the railroad, and knew nothing
about the panic until it was at its height, but acted in
stantly upon being informed.
410 LIFE OF GRANT
All this was finally believed, not only by the President's
friends, but by all his honorable enemies; but even his
best friends were forced to admit that he had not used
good taste in allowing himself to be seen socially with Mr.
Fisk and his like.
One of his most merciless critics said :
" General Grant is unfortunate. He has degraded him
self by his too ready acceptance of gifts, which a more
chivalric character would have proudly spurned, or, at
least, have courteously declined. A man in his position
should be above the necessity of explaining. A President
notoriously loaded down with presents is at an unfortunate
disadvantage when the web of circumstances seems to
connect him with a doubtful transaction."
There was a sting of truth in all this which the friends
of General Grant could not but feel. His unsuspicious
good nature and his easy valuation of money had led him
to accept favors which a more scrupulous man might have
refused. This did not arise from his love of gold, for he
gave as freely as he received. He accepted a gift in the
direct and whole-souled way in which he would make one,
but there was too much truth in the critic's word. General
Grant should have been above the necessity of explaining
his connection with Fisk.
He came out of the whole transaction the victim of men
who had imposed on his peculiarly amiable and confiding
nature, but some of the criticisms remained. He had
associated himself with rich men, rather than with states
men and patriots. In his desire to avoid politicians, he
seemed likely to fall among thieves.
As the third year brought no diminution of Grant's
popularity, and it was seen that he would be a candidate
for a second term, the opposition (which had been growing
naturally out of the wish of those who were out to oust
those who were in, and from the restless desire of a cer
tain type of voter to try some one else) became really
formidable, and found its expression in the speeches ot
men like Carl Schurz, B. Gratz Brown, and Charles Sum-
ner. Under their leadership was seen a curious coquetry
on the part of the " Liberal Republicans " with the " Bour-
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 411
bon Democracy," and at last they united under one banner,
with one war-cry: "Anything to beat Grant!" There
after his administration was searched with malignant care,
and every possible effort made to discredit it. Men like
Sumner seemed more eager to destroy Grant than to
uphold measures to reunite the nation under a common
constitution.
The peace which the country enjoyed was called a
"bayoneted peace" and a "fawning upon power" by
these critics. Grant was said to be " wax in the hands of
evil counselors," and it was said that he could not say no
to his friends, while others, with equal decision, denounced
him as " usurper Grant," the " man of iron," the " man on
horseback." According to these prophets of evil, he was
surrounded by a " military ring " composed of Generals
Babcock, Porter, Belknap, and Ingalls. His acts of usur
pation were detailed. He had usurped power by suspend
ing, under the Kuklux Bill, the right of habeas corpus in
the Southern States, and substituting therefor military
arrest. He had usurped the judicial power by enlarging
the number of judges on the supreme bench for political
purposes, and had violated the rights of the Senate by
"discarding" Senator Sumner from the chairmanship of
the Committee on Foreign Relations, and accepting the
counsels of Porter, Babcock, et <?/., who wished to per
petuate him in power for their own ends. He had vio
lated the rights of Congress, to which is intrusted the
sole power of making war, by forming an illegitimate
alliance (through a military member of his household)
with the usurper Baez of Santo Domingo, and by defend
ing him from the action of Spain, with which the United
States was at peace. Furthermore, he had attacked the
vital powers of the people by overawing a peaceful assem
blage of voters with the presence of United States troops
in the State of Louisiana.
These were a few of the charges of the press; but it
was reserved for Senator Sumner, the " discarded chairman
of the Committee on Foreign Relations," to give the final
death-dealing blow to President Grant. On the last day
of May, in the fourth year of the administration, the
412 LIFE OF GRANT
senator, rising from his seat, launched his long-threaten
ing imperial thunderbolt. It was carefully planned and
malignantly executed. It was his deliberate intention to
destroy General Grant's chances for reelection. He had
waited till the nominating convention was about to as
semble. The excitement of the people in the North was
intense. The Senate was crowded ; the reporters, with
sharpened pencils, leaned forward to catch every word.
Outside in the streets, the word ran from street to street :
" Sumner is attacking Grant." It produced almost the
effect of a personal assault with physical means.
The philippic was worthy of the man. It was long and
it was brutally direct. It may be taken to sum up every
indictment against the President's administration which
had any possibility of being sustained. It omitted no
thing; it glossed nothing.
According to the embittered senator, the nation was in
great peril from the ambitious desire of President Grant
to be and continue the absolute dictator of the nation's
policy. The President had trodden the Constitution under
foot. He had treated the Presidential office as little better
than a plaything or perquisite. His exalted trust had been
made a personal indulgence, wherein palace-cars, fast
horses, and seaside loiterings had figured more largely
than attention to duties. He had used the office to enrich
his own family on a scale of nepotism hardly equaled in
the world. The vast appointing power conferred by the
Constitution had been employed to reward his friends, to
punish his opponents, and to advance his election to a
second term.
"The President now challenges inquiry," continued the
senator, " and I meet the challenge, selecting two typical
charges. Thirteen relations of the President are billeted
on the country, not one of whom, but for this relationship,
would hold office. Beyond this list are other relations,
showing that this strange abuse did not stop with relatives,
but widened to include relatives of relatives. In the
matter of gift-taking, the President has notoriously taken
gifts. He has appointed to his cabinet Greeks bearing
gifts, apparently without seeing the indecorum, not to say
indecency, of the transaction.
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 413
" Nor did the case of the first Secretary of State, ap
pointed as a personal compliment, differ in character from
the appointment to the custom-house of New York City
of a man who had no other recommendation than that
he had brought acceptable gifts to President Grant.
" His government has been a personal government, semi-
military in character, abhorrent to republican institutions.
The White House has become a military headquarters,
and the strange spectacle was daily seen of messages borne
to the Senate by officers of the regular army. Other
Presidents had entered upon office with a certain modesty
and distrust; but this soldier, absolutely untried in civil
life, entered upon the sublime duties of President saying:
' The responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them
without fear.' In his cabinet-making he has discarded all
tradition, usage, and propriety. To the dishonor of the
civil service, and in total disregard of precedent, he has
surrounded himself with officers of the army, substituting
military forms for those of civil life, although Congress
had shown a purpose to limit the employment of military
officers by three statutes.
" As a candidate for reelection, he now invites judgment.
Can Republicans, without departing from all obligations,
whether of party or patriotism, recognize our ambitious
Caesar as a proper representative? Can we take the
fearful responsibility of his prolonged empire? There is
a demand for reform in the civil service, and the President
formally adopts this demand ; but he neglects the first step,
which depends on himself. If he is sincere, he will declare
against a second term.
" He has become the great Presidential quarreler, with
more contentions than all other Presidents together, all of
which began and continued from his dictatorial spirit. It
might well be asked whether the American people were
ready to submit to the domination of one man, and that
man a soldier without experience and without even suc
cessful business ability."
In alluding to the nation's foreign relations, the sena
tor could not forbear to say that never before had the
nation's management been so wanting in ability and so
absolutely without character. In every direction, inter-
414 LIFE OF GRANT
national affairs were inextricably muddled. " Not with
out anxiety," he concluded, " do I await the national
convention. But I have an earnest hope that the men
there gathered together will bring the Republican party
into its ancient harmony, saving it from the personal pre
tensions of one man."
This speech became the book and precept of the opposi
tion. No charges went beyond it in scope ; few exceeded
it in bitterness. The friends of the administration, how
ever, professed to find in it very little that could be taken
seriously. It had long been known that Senator Sumner
was a violent opponent of the President, and that he was
ambitious to be President himself, and it was slyly insinu
ated that this lofty statesman had come to perceive the
danger of retaining Grant in office upon being " dis
carded " from the Committee on Foreign Relations. He
was placed in the snarling group of disappointed applicants
for office, and his whole assault discredited. The friends
of the President said the charge of nepotism was absurd ;
that it was not a question of whether these thirteen office
holders were brothers-in-law to General Grant or not, but
whether they performed their duties acceptably. The
charge was puerile at its best, for out of sixty or seventy
thousand offices, some twelve or thirteen only were filled
by persons in some way related to the President. This
could not be held to be a very grave offense, although
called the " grossest nepotism " by the senator in opposi
tion. It was true that the President's father was a small
postmaster in Kentucky, but he had been appointed under
Johnson, and it was not alleged that he was either inca
pable or dishonest. The mere fact of being related to
President Grant was not in itself exactly criminal.
With regard to the charge that his was a personal gov
ernment, they would call attention to the fact that one
man in America could rule only because a majority of
people thought as he did. The President in his public
acts had represented the majority of the people, and the
coming convention and the succeeding election would
prove this to be true. If the President had quarreled
with Sumner, Motley, Chase, Greeley, Schurz, and Trum-
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 415
bull, he had probably done so with good reason, the truth
of the matter being that all of these gentlemen considered
themselves " bigger men than Grant," and some of them
had secret hopes of being Presidential candidates, or, at
least, " cabinet timber," at the coming convention. Sena
tor Sumner, by his violence, by the too evident malice of
his attack just before the convention, had done only injury
to himself. The friends of General Grant would rally all
the closer to him ; and as for the senator himself, he had
committed political hara-kiri. He was as dead as Julius
Caesar. Grant would be nominated by acclamation.
This is exactly what happened. The convention, meet
ing six days later in Philadelphia, came together roaring
with enthusiasm for the " man of Appomattox." Of
course the opposition papers made light of the meeting.
It was called the " feast of Lupercal," the " howling farce,"
and the " meeting of the Grant office-holders." Its mem
bers were called the " Grant strikers" and the "faithful."
It was said, " They come a-purpose," for it was evident
at the start that the President was to be renominated.
" They Present a Crown to Caesar " was one of the famous
newspaper headings.
The orators at this convention also used the speech of
Senator Sumner as a text, and continued to state the
other side. Attention was called to the fact that after
four years of trial there was more enthusiasm than when
General Grant's name was first presented for the Presi
dency. " One good term deserves another " was inscribed
on their banners. " He has blessed the country, and we
will honor him." They wished to give him time to finish
his work of crushing out the Kuklux and saving the negro.
He had made some mistakes, but the country wanted him
four years longer. He was doing well. No serious charge
against him had been sustained.
Senator Morton arose, and, in effect, replied to Sum
ner : " The President has not abused law ; he has only
executed it. The Kuklux Law was passed to insure fair
and honest elections, and to prevent persecution of the
negroes. In that spirit it has been enforced." The Presi
dent had committed errors, but most of them were trivial.
416 LIFE OF GRANT
Four years ago the President had said, " I have no policy
to urge against the wishes of the people," and in all
essential matters he had fostered and protected the inter
ests of the people. " No man is greater than his party,"
concluded Senator Morton. " Whenever General Grant
shall betray the principles of the Republican party, when
ever he shall become recreant to his high duties, he will
pass away, as other men have passed away. He will be
condemned by the popular breath, as other leaders have
been condemned."
To this other speakers added that it was of no value to
call the President the "dog-fancier," the " dummy," the
" butcher," and other names of that character. Calling
names was not argument, particularly on the part of those
who had been his friends in other days, and who were now
disappointed office-seekers. " Who is this man," they
asked, "who is called the American Caesar?" He is
the man who disbanded more than five hundred thousand
men in 1865, all armed and under his absolute command.
Was this done like Caesar? He is the man who, when
the war was over, instantly began cutting down the ex
penses of the army, and reducing its numbers with a
rapidity hitherto unparalleled. Was that the way of
military tyrants? No man in the world had ever held
such power and used it with greater moderation, and the
American people would justify him. " This convention,"
they said, " will acquit him of every charge."
This the convention did. It threw every vote to Ulysses
Grant, seven hundred and sixty-two in number, and made
him once again the absolutely unanimous candidate of the
Republican party ; and Sumner was defeated. His vault
ing ambition had overleaped itself and fallen on the outer
side.
It was a pathetic and regrettable sacrifice of a good and
simple-hearted man when Horace Greeley consented to
accept the nomination of the Liberal Republicans and the
Bourbon Democracy. He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter. The Democratic party knew perfectly well
that it had not the slightest chance of success with a
straight nomination, but it hoped by seconding the nomi-
GRANT'S RE£LECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 417
nation of " honest old Horace " to catch the Liberal or
dissatisfied Republican votes. It is doubtful, however,
whether any leader of the party, except Greeley himself,
expected to win. It was this very hopelessness of their
position which gave such relentless ferocity to their assaults
upon the good name of General Grant.
In the interval between June and November the Presi
dent's life was scrutinized as never before. Every minut
est act, every slightest word, was seized upon and distorted
into the semblance of duplicity or crime. Cartoonists went
to the farthest reach in delineating him as a man growing
sodden and bestial in habit. All the reckless wits of the
nation were again turned loose upon him, to ridicule him
as a man of no address, as a vulgarian, and of no ability
in any direction whatever, except, possibly, in hurling
great masses of men upon a barricade. His military
career was attacked. One journal never failed to picture
him as a reeling despot wearing an imperial crown. All
sense of decency was lost. The privacy of the President's
home was invaded by these unclean spies.
During all this period, the general, though he suffered
acutely from this abuse on account of its effect on his
children and his wife, remained silent. He made no ex
cuses nor apologies. He asked for no mercy. He did
not insist upon his record, either in war or in peace. He
left that for the honest and considerate citizens of America
to study for themselves, expressing confidence in their
verdict. Most of the charges he considered it beneath
him to publicly notice. " I am willing to put my acts
against Charles Sumner's words," he said.
One of the most absurd of the charges against him
was that he was already the richest President since the
time of Washington. As a matter of fact, his salary of
twenty-five thousand dollars a year went the way of all
his other salaries. He saved comparatively little of his
share, though Mrs. Grant laid something by, and induced
him to make some purchases of land and houses. His
principal speculation was the Dent farm on the Gravois,
which he had bought in, and was using for fancy stock-
raising at ruinous expense. This farm was listed by his
418 LIFE OF GRANT
enemies at one hundred and twenty thousand dollars,
which was about three times its value. In a letter in
1874, he speaks of wishing to put out five or six thousand
dollars on the farm, but would have to borrow it first. It
never became a paying investment; on the contrary, it
was a constant drain upon him. Ultimately he was forced
to sell out all his stock at sacrifice sale, and rent the place.
Letters written at this time to his agent, John F. Long,
make no evasion of the fact that he was generally without
ready funds. Many of the letters refer to the sale of part
of the stock. Some of them detail with considerable
minuteness the particular parts of the farm which the
President considered best fitted for certain sorts of grains.
In general they were curiously serene and unhurried, and
contain no hint of the storm of opposition going on around
him.
A Western correspondent, writing of him at this time,
pictures him as a plain, sad-faced man, absolutely without
military surroundings or formalities of any kind, bending
over his desk in the Executive Chamber. He had grown
ten years older in appearance, and there was little in his
manner to suggest the successful candidate for reelection,
much less the imperial Caesar of the opposition press.
Those who met him at this time speak of him as retaining
all his gentleness and considerateness of manner. He was
provoked into replying but once or twice. Once he talked
upon the attitude of the Southern people, and expressed
again with great emphasis his wish to see perfect harmony
restored between the sections, and expressed also his
determination to carry out the law impartially. A
reporter visited the home of the President's father in
Covington, and found it to be, not the palatial mansion
delineated by Sumner and Dana, but a plain, two-story
brick house with green blinds. Everything had the pecu
liarly plain and simple character of an American working-
man's home. The floor was covered with a well-worn
carpet. The table was set for tea with the simplest china
and cutlery. A few unpretending pictures were on the
wall.
Uncle Jesse himself at this time was reported to be a
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 419
stooping old man walking with a crutch. He was also
exceedingly hard of hearing. He had suffered from a
stroke of paralysis some six months before, and, although
slowly recovering, was unable to talk or think very clearly
on any subject. He was seventy-eight years of age, and
had little hope of a speedy recovery. In reply to a ques
tion whether he thought his son would be elected again
or not, he replied : " Well, I don't know much about it
now. My eyes are so weak I can't read any more. But
Mrs. Grant reads, and interests herself a good deal about
politics. She is very reticent, though, just like the gen
eral. You never can tell what the general is going to do
about anything. But let 's go into the parlor and talk it
over with Mrs. Grant."
The visitor found Mrs. Grant a rather small, thin, clear-
visaged and well-preserved old lady. She was knitting
stockings while she entertained a visitor in a calico dress.
Mrs. Grant talked freely and with great shrewdness upon
the political situation. She commented with some indig
nation upon the number of people who were claiming
relationship with the general. She said : " I don't doubt
but what every one of the people Ulysses has appointed
were highly recommended to him by people who ought
to know better. After all, they tell me generally that he
has given the country a good administration."
Ex- Governor Wells of Virginia, in a speech at Peters
burg, well expressed the popular feeling aroused in the
country at large by Grant's enemies in their unscrupulous
attacks upon him. He spoke in reply to the sneer of
Ex-Confederate Major Kelly of Richmond, who had
alluded to Grant as the " dummy driving his horse along
the Jersey beach."
" I am surprised that he, of all men, the chief magistrate
of the queenly city of Richmond, who knows so well what
decent respect requires, should have been betrayed into
the use of such grossly improper language ; but as he has
asked the question, I reply :
" Who was the matchless hero of Donelson, Shiloh,
Chattanooga, and Vicksburg?
" The dummy who drives his horse along the Jersey beach.
420 LIFE OF GRANT
" Who was it that led a hundred thousand heroes to
victory over Lee and his before unconquered army from
the Rapidan to the Wilderness, to the James, to Peters
burg, to Richmond, and the old apple-tree at Appomat-
tox?
" // was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach.
"Who was it that planned, that fought, that flanked,
that shelled, that charged at Steedman, at Fort Hell, and
Fort Damnation ?
" It was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
leach.
" Who was it that seized the tiger of secession by the
throat, and, holding him there, said to those who caviled,
to those who hoped, and those who feared, ' I '11 fight it
out on this line, if it takes all summer ' ?
" // was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach.
" Who was it, after the victory was won and the Union
safe, said to Lee and the conquered army, whose courage,
honor, and manhood he respected, ' Return to your homes,
and you shall not be disturbed by the United States au
thorities so long as you observe the laws of the place where
you reside ' ?
" It was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach.
" Who was it that said to Lee, ' Let the soldiers of your
army who own the horses in their charge take them home
with them, for they will need them for the spring plowing
and other farm work ' ?
" // was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach.
" Who was it, when Lee, Wise, and other Confederate
generals were indicted by a Virginia grand jury, said:
* The officers and men paroled at Appomattox cannot
be tried for treason ; good faith as well as true policy
dictates that we should observe the conditions of that
convention ' ?
" It was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach.
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 421
" Who was it that said : ' Six years having elapsed since
the last gun was fired, is it not time that the disabilities
imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment should be re
moved?'
" It was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach.
" Who was it that restored Virginia, and reclad her in
the full, bright, shining garb of a sovereign State, and
now, calm and serene, unangered, patient, and faithful,
dares, unmindful of the threats, the abuse, and the living
slanders heaped upon him, to do his duty alike to friend
and foe, to God, his country, and himself?
" It was the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach.
" Who is it that will live in the hearts of his country
men, revered at home and abroad, — the great soldier, the
modest citizen, and the faithful public servant, unostenta
tious, unassuming, brave, without ambition, forbearing,
resolute in doing what he deems right, but never offensive
in asserting himself as soldier, general, or chief, — for a
thousand years after his poor detractors have gone down
to a forgotten grave ?
" // is the dummy driving his horse along the Jersey
beach r
Against the irresistible force of such hero-worship
detraction made no head. The leaders doubted, but the
people believed. They lifted their hands in applause,
and shouted back the single word, " Grant! "
If a triumphant reelection can be taken as a refutation of
charges against a President, then the first administration
of General Grant was cleared of all serious indictment. It
closed triumphantly. It was a good administration. It
is true that disorder still existed in the South, where a
ferocious and implacable minority opposed every effort at
education, and every attempt on the part of the negro to
acquire political rights. But whatever of this warfare
existed, it was necessarily secret, scattered, and disorgan
ized, for Grant stood in stern though unangered opposi
tion to it. In spite of all the political entanglements, in
spite of the war of the carpet-bagger and the rebel briga-
422 LIFE OF GRANT
dier, Grant continued his calm, undeviating course. " He
was a force in the right direction," admitted one of his
bitter rivals.
He stood for education, for the use of the ballot accord
ing to the law on the statute-books. As Senator Morton
said, he had striven to execute the law ; he had not abused
it. No period in American history was ever so difficult,
so intricate, and so liable to perversion and violence. It
is probable that the angel Michael himself would have
been sharply criticized, if not accused of injustice, in ap
plying the rules of high heaven's court to the Southern
States. Measured by the fate of conquered people in the
past, the South had no right to complain. The rule of
the North was unprecedentedly pacificatory. No such
situation had ever before existed. A part of the Union,
the Southern citizens, were not only a conquered people,
but a people having among them six millions of black men
who had lately been their slaves, for whose rights the
North had fought, and whose care it was the bounden
duty of the conquering people to assume. The South
expected too much; the radicals of the North expected
too much. Only a few who had risen to a perception
of the racial difficulties involved comprehended that the
problem demanded, not years, but generations, for solu
tion. The laws of growth, of social evolution, are unhast-
ing, but sure.
Grant's own feeling continued unchanged. " It is
natural," he said in Atlanta, in 1865. It was natural
that disorders should continue : they were merely the
ebbing tide of war, each wave rising less high than the one
which preceded it. He believed it to be his duty to hold
firm government over the people, being not impatient of
the slow progress. He had no hates ; that was his strong
point. If he had neither the profound legal knowledge
of Seward, the crafty statesmanship of Charles Sumner,
nor the wide historical reading of Motley, he possessed
what the people regarded as of more value : he had a
thorough knowledge of the Southern people and of the
reconstruction situation, and he had the mind and will to
carry out his policy, no matter how the storm of politics
GRANT'S REELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 423
raged around him. As the tangle of lesser controversies
melted away, Grant's larger policies stood revealed.
There had been progress in the settlement of the social
question,— that he knew,— and he approached his second
term with a feeling of confidence. The time had come
for a decisive advance. In his annual message at the
opening of Congress in 1871 he had said:
More than six years having elapsed since the last hostile gun
was fired between the armies then arrayed, the one for the
perpetuation, the other for the destruction, of the Union, it may
well be considered whether it is not now time that the disabilities
imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment should be removed. . . .
I do not see the advantage or propriety of excluding men from
office merely because they were, before the Rebellion, of standing
and character sufficient to be elected to positions requiring oaths
to support the Constitution. ... It will be a happy condition
of the country when the old citizens of these States will take an
interest in public affairs, promulgate ideas honestly entertained,
vote for men representing their views, and tolerate the same
freedom of expression and of ballot in those of differing political
convictions.
This was certainly a very creditable sentiment for a
" military despot " and a gloomy tyrant to utter, and
those in the South who were inclined to a certain fairness
of judgment could not but feel that they still had a friend
in President Grant. Through his influence general amnesty
was granted to all who were politically disabled, except
ing to a few who were considered to be outside the pale
of pardon. He ended his first term with a decided gain
in the good will of the Southern people.
CHAPTER XLV
GRANT'S SECOND TERM
DURING the first year of Grant's second term, Jesse
Grant died, in the eightieth year of his age. Though
the President took a special train, he did not arrive in time
to see his father alive. Old Jesse was reported to have
said proudly : " I am the only man who ever lived to see
his son twice elected to the Presidency." His last days
were peaceful, though full of pain. He had long been a
familiar figure in Covington, and his large frame, old-
fashioned dress, and abstracted air had for many years
attracted the gaze of the curious. He grew more eccen
tric as he grew older, but those who knew him best con
sidered him a man of real power, an honorable man, and
one who had given many strong traits to his son. After
the death of her husband, Mother Grant went to live with
her daughter Jennie in Orange, New Jersey.
From all the reports of Grant during this time, it would
seem that he remained essentially the military commander,
having few intimate friends outside Sherman, Sheridan,
Ingalls, Beale, Babcock, and other of his trusted subordi
nates. Utterly simple and democratic, he was also sole
executive. He took a useful hint, no matter whence it
came, but he called no councils of war. He decided all
questions for himself, and is to be held responsible for his
decisions. His mind was essentially military, but he
hated all tyranny or injustice. He had no inordinate am
bitions, but he came naturally to enjoy the honors of his
high position. He had the pride of a soldier in doing his
duty well, but the thought of going outside his duties did
not find lodgment in his brain. He hated war, and the
424
Jesse Root Grant, father of General Grant, age 69 years.
From an original photograph owned by Helen M. Burke of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
GRANT'S SECOND TERM 425
Napoleonic idea of conquest for personal or national
aggrandizement was entirely outside the circle of his
mind.
As he rose to read his second inaugural address, the
general again faced a throng too great to hear a word he
uttered. Again he stepped forward alone, but with less
emotion than four years before. The fine exaltation of the
first experience was gone. He looked older — much older
— and heavier. He read no better than before, but his
address was better composed, though not finer of spirit.
He said it had been his endeavor in the past to maintain
all the laws and to act for the best interests of all the
people, and that he would continue on the same line.
When he entered upon his first term of office the country
had not yet recovered from the effects of a great revolu
tion, and three of the former States of the Union had not
been restored. It seemed to him that no new question
should be raised so long as that condition of affairs existed,
and that, so far as he had been able to control events, the
policy of the last four years had been to restore harmony
and the public credit. He believed that our great nation
was to be a guiding star to the other nations of the world
which were struggling toward a republican form of gov
ernment.
He alluded with candor to the defeat of his Santo
Domingo plan, and said :
" In future, while I hold my present office, the subject
of the acquisition of territory must have the support of
the people before I will recommend any proposition look
ing to such acquisition. I have no fear of the government
becoming weakened by reason of extension of territory.
Intercommunication by telegraph and steam has eliminated
that. The great Governor of the world is preparing the
nations of the earth to become one nation, speaking one
language ; and the time is coming when armies and navies
will be no longer required. . . .
" My efforts in the future will be directed to the resto
ration of good feeling between the different sections of
our common country, to the restoration of our currency,
to the construction of cheap routes of transit throughout
426 LIFE OF GRANT
the land, to the maintenance of friendly relations with all
our neighbors and with distant nations."
In closing, he said :
" I look forward with the greatest anxiety to the day
when I shall be relieved from responsibilities that at times
are almost overwhelming, and from which I have scarcely
had respite since the firing upon Fort Sumter. My ser
vices were then tendered and accepted under the first call
for troops. I did not ask for place or position, and was
entirely without influence or the acquaintance of persons of
influence. But I was resolved to perform my part in a
struggle threatening the very existence of the nation. I
performed a conscientious duty, without asking promotion
or command, and without a vengeful feeling toward any
section or any individual.
" Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from
my candidacy for my present office in 1868, I have been
the subject of abuse and slanders scarcely ever equaled in
political history, which to-day I feel that I can afford to
disregard, in view of your verdict, which I gratefully
accept as my vindication."
His long silence was broken. When it might have
looked an appeal for mercy, or a bid for votes, he had
remained silent ; but now, upon his second inaugural day,
when about to take the office of President for the second
time, he uttered the plain and simple words of a man who
had been slandered, who knew he was wronged, and who
earnestly desired to be set right before the world. Every
word that he had uttered was perfectly true. He had
been unselfish; he had been dispassionate; and yet he
had been tortured and calumniated beyond any other
President in the history of the nation, except Washington
and Lincoln. And whether in perfect taste or not, this
reply was a frank and natural outcry of an honorable
soldier and citizen.
Immediately upon the assembling of Congress, the cry of
salary- grabbing arose. The bill for increasing the pay of
congressmen, senators, judges, and also that of the Presi
dent, was introduced into Congress by General Nathaniel
P. Banks, who had been Grant's bitter political opponent
U. S. Grant at the beginning of his second term as President, age 51 years.
From a photograph by Brady.
GRANT'S SECOND TERM 42?
during the Presidential canvass, but wished, when all was
over, to extend the hand of friendship to his old comrade-
in-arms. This he did by the presentation of the Salary Bill.
Soon afterward a representative called upon the President,
and stated that there was no question about raising the
President's salary, but that there was a division of opinion
with regard to the other officers of the government.
To this Grant replied : " If the bill comes to me with a
proposition increasing my own salary, and leaving out
that of the cabinet officers, the judge of the Supreme
Court, and members of Congress, I shall feel called upon
to veto it."
This statement, carried back to Congress, had great
weight. The bill passed, and when it came to the White
House the President signed it. The bill was called the
" Salary Grab," and a great deal was made of it by the
opposition. Perhaps a more sensitive man would have
vetoed it, but every one of his critics knew that twenty-
five thousand dollars a year had long been insufficient to
pay for the expenses of entertaining and maintaining the
dignity of the Presidential office. Grant's pay as general
of the army had been almost as much, with expenses very
considerably less.
The second cabinet was considered better than the first,
but there were many changes made. The general still
maintained the military idea of subordination with regard
to the members of the cabinet, and when he found any de
partment taking undue power to itself, or assuming to be
the government, he requested the resignation of its head
without a moment's hesitation. In reply to a journalist
who asked him why General Cox, his Secretary of the
Interior, had left the cabinet, he said : " The trouble was
that General Cox thought the Interior Department was
the whole government, and that Cox was the Interior
Department. I had to point out to him in very plain
language that there were three controlling branches of the
government, and that I was the head of one of these, and
would like so to be considered by the Secretary of the
Interior."
For these reasons there was almost continual change in
428 LIFE OF GRANT
the personnel of his cabinet, Fish, the Secretary of State,
being almost the only member who remained throughout.
For him the President retained the highest regard.
There were several important questions, aside from the
ever-present Southern problem, which Grant settled with
apparent wisdom. One of these referred to what was
called the " inflation of the currency," and though a veto
of the bill to increase the currency seemed likely to split
the Republican party, the President vetoed it. It is a
capital commentary on Grant's rugged sincerity to know
that he first wrote a message agreeing to the bill, but that,
upon re-reading with care the arguments he had used, he
concluded that his deductions were false. He tore up this
message, and rewrote it entire, reversing his judgment.
He thus aligned himself with the conservative forces in
society. Whatever may be thought now of the wisdom
of his position by reformers, at that time he was com
mended for his wise measure by the strongest and most
conservative thinkers of every State. Probably the more
advanced thinkers of to-day would say that his position,
while conservative, was fallacious.
Everything he did was criticized. Under his adminis
tration, and by reason of his vigorous advocacy of im
provement, Washington was changing from a squalid
Southern town with unpaved streets and ramshackle build
ings to a city really creditable to the nation. The plans
drawn long before by a man of genius needed only to be
carried out to make the city a worthy capital of the nation ;
but it was claimed that great jobbery and favoritism con
nected itself with the work of improvement, and " Boss "
Sheppard was held to be high in favor with Grant. It was
believed that Grant must naturally be sharing some ill-
gotten gains.
In the spring of his second year his daughter Ellen, a
girl of nineteen, married a young Englishman, and, to the
deep grief of her father, went to England to live. He had
not approved of the engagement at the first, but when it
became evident that his daughter's happiness depended
upon the marriage, he consented, though he foresaw the
long separation which followed.
GRANT'S SECOND TERM 429
The Southern problem seemed to be increasing in diffi
culty. At the very hour in which he was reading his
inaugural address, and alluding to the peaceful condition
of the country, the people of Louisiana were rioting in the
streets of New Orleans, and the two factions, one composed
of the white Democracy of the South, and the other made
up of the " carpet-bag " element from the North, combined
with the negro voters, were ranked against each other as
if for war. This condition continued during 1873-75, an<3
the enemies of the President held him responsible for this
as for other evils.
The position which the President immediately assumed
in this affair was precisely that which he had held while
general of the army. He insisted on the recognition of
the Kellogg, or " black Republican," government in Loui
siana, because, according to all the laws, and by the verdict
of the ^turning-board, that party had a majority of the
votes, and must be sustained. It was not his business to
pass upon the legality of an enactment. He sternly in
sisted that all men should keep the peace, and once, when
requested to proclaim martial law, he replied : " The whole
public is tired out with these annual outbreaks in the
South, and the great majority are ready now to condemn
any interference on the part of the government. I heartily
wish that peace and good order may be restored without
issuing the proclamation, but if the proclamation must be
issued," — here he uttered his stern word, — " I shall instruct
the commander of the forces to have no child's play." In
reality the race war had reached a malignancy very dis
couraging to the lovers of peace. The situation demanded
severe measures. At Vicksburg, as well as in New Orleans,
in Texas, and in Carolina, the trouble approached open
warfare. The white citizens of the South, groaning under
the burden of the " carpet-bag " and " scalawag" govern
ment, were determined to throw it off.
The President recognized the injustices which gave rise
to this feeling. He said : " I sympathize with you, and I
will do all in my power to relieve you. You have had
most trying governments to live under; but can you pro
claim yourselves entirely irresponsible for this condition?
43O LIFE OF GRANT
While I remain President all the laws of Congress, includ
ing the recent amendment, will be enforced with rigor.
Let there be fairness in the discussion, let the advocates
of all political parties give honest reports of occurrences,
condemning the wrong and upholding the right, and soon
all will be well. Treat the negro as a citizen and a voter,
for such he is and must remain, and politics will be
divided, not on the color-line, but on principle."
The President saw that the Southern whites were not to
be altogether blamed in the premises. Under the lead of
men who had no permanent interest in the country, igno
rant and childish negro legislators had combined to pass
the most ruinous and scandalous appropriation bills.
These acts intensified the determination of the white race
in the South to regain its natural supremacy. It is but
fair to say that no State in the North would have sub
mitted to similar legislation on the part of a class of voters
so ignorant and so venal.
Nevertheless, as President Grant had indicated, the
South could not reasonably complain. They had brought
the condition on themselves by refusing to recognize the
civil rights of the negro, and by rejecting the Fourteenth
Amendment with its necessary and just diminution of
Southern political power. They knew Grant well enough
to properly weigh every word which he spoke, and when
he said, " Henceforth there will be no child's play ; the
laws will be executed, and the peace will be maintained in
every street and highway of the United States," the
malcontents gave up the fight, the reasonable men took
up the suggestions of the President, and the reign of vio
lence ended in the South.
Meanwhile, as the months of the new second adminis
tration dropped away, the cry of imperialism and of Grant-
ism arose. A large number of people professed to believe
that Grant was plotting secretly to secure the nomination
for a third term, and that if he secured the third term, he
would be able to continue for a fourth term, or for life,
and possibly to establish himself as dictator. At this dis
tance the cry is absurd, but in that fevered and corrupt
period the fear was not without something to feed upon.
GRANT'S SECOND TERM 431
Nothing could have been further from Grant's thought
than the assumption of any power outside of that granted
to him by the people. He was surrounded, however, by
a crowd of parasites who had no more sense or patriotism
than to say, with winks and nods, or even with a gesture
of the clenched fist, " The old man is the best President
we ever had ; he 's the greatest man in the nation ; he 's
the man for the place, and we will keep him there."
From the obscure hints or open boastings of such men
the enemies of Grant deduced their inflammatory charges.
It was always the peculiarity of General Grant to decide
upon a question only when the moment most proper for
the decision had arrived. He was too proud to defend
himself from charges of any kind, and he declined to either
accept or refuse a nomination for a third term before it
had been offered to him. He did not care to gratify his
enemies by taking any account of their furious charges.
He remained perfectly silent, and no assault of an enemy
or petition of a friend could draw one word from him,
either for or against the third term.
But at last, in the summer of 1875, when, by reason
of a resolution introduced into the Republican State
Convention at Philadelphia, the question assumed suffi
ciently definite shape so that he could properly reply to
it, then the President spoke. He called a cabinet meeting
to consider it. Mrs. Grant happened to be in the room
at the hour of assembling, and the general was too con
siderate of her to ask her to leave the office. As the
cabinet assembled he became very uneasy for fear she
might gain an inkling of what was about to be discussed.
At last she perceived his uneasiness, and left the room, say
ing: " Well, if nothing exciting is to take place, I '11 go."
After she had gone, the general told the cabinet that
he was about to reply to the chairman of the Pennsyl
vania convention, outlining his position. This he did
after the meeting was over. In this letter he said :
The idea that any man could elect himself President, or even
renominate himself, is preposterous. Any man can destroy his
chances for an office, but no one can force an election or even a
nomination. I am not, nor have I ever been, a candidate for
432 LIFE OF GRANT
renomination. I would not accept the nomination, if it were
tendered, unless it should come under such circumstances as to
make it an imperative duty— circumstances not likely to arise.
This letter he wrote with his own hand, and carried out
to the postal-box himself; and it was well he did so, for,
on his return, Mrs. Grant asked him what was going on
in the cabinet meeting.
He hesitated a moment, and then replied : " Well, my
name is being mentioned for a third term, and I 've been
unable to answer until the nomination was offered ; but
to-day the question came up in such form that I have
written a letter against the third term."
Mrs. Grant was very much excited. " You must not
send it."
" But I have sent it."
"Well, go get it back instantly."
The general smiled, and said : " No ; it is in the hands
of Uncle Sam."
There were those among his implacable enemies who
professed to believe that this letter was a declination with
a string to it, but for the most part it was taken to mean
just what it said, and the fury of opposition was imme
diately allayed. It gave instant hope to all the prominent
leaders of the Republican party, and pipes began to be
laid in every direction. From being a question of Grant
himself, it became a question of " Grant's man." The
question was, " Whom will our Caesar indorse ? "
CHAPTER XLVI
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS
AS Congress assembled in the fall of 1875, and the
_i\. President presented his seventh annual message, abuse
of him had practically died away. He had demonstrated
his strength and his consistency, and had lived down very
much of the opposition. His letter defining his position
on the third term had made the assaults upon him as an
" ambitious Caesar " of little account, although the fear
still existed that he felt the people behind him, and might
go before the country for a third term.
The country at large was more at peace than had been
hoped for three years before. The Kuklux had felt the
strong hand of the Chief Executive, and the Southern
leaders were beginning to plan another mode of evading
the negro ballot. Force having been found dangerous
and ineffectual, they determined now to rule by craft.
The spirit of physical violence was dying out. For all
these reasons the annual message of the President dealt
almost entirely with the money question, with telegraphic
and railway communication, and with other purely com
mercial matters.
The President stated his belief that the time had come
for withdrawing federal interference from the Southern
States, leaving them to work out their political problems
in their own way. He well knew that force begot force,
and was eager to announce the moment when the South
could be completely freed from federal interference, and
should turn itself unreservedly to upbuilding its industries.
The message was considered wise and strong. It was
433
434 LIFE OF GRANT
spoken of as the " ablest message he has yet written."
For the moment the friends of General Grant could
safely express their admiration of him, and analyze with
a great deal of just pride his action as President. His
closing days promised to be peaceful.
But at the very time that he was writing this message,
disgrace and despair, like twin vultures, were hovering
over his head. For nearly three years obscure intimations
and even open charges of corruption had been made against
the revenue department, especially in Chicago, St. Louis,
and Cincinnati. And at last, in the second year of his
new administration, in response to a demand from every
well-wisher, he had appointed Benjamin H. Bristow
Secretary of the Treasury for the set purpose of casting
out the thieves. But the year passed, and little was done.
Some months later a friend in St. Louis had written to
President Grant, detailing the insinuations being made
by influential critics in that city, not only against officers
high in the administration, but against the President him
self. This letter Grant had turned over in his hand, and
covered with this vigorous indorsement :
Referred to the Secretary of the Treasury. ... I forward
this for the information and to the end that, if it throw any
light upon new parties to summon as witnesses, they may be
brought out. Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided.
Be specially vigilant against all who insinuate that they have high
influence to protect or to protect them. No personal considera
tions should stand in the way of performing a public duty.
There was in this command the same gr.m challenge
which ran through his word to Andrew D White. " If
you find me guilty of any share in a dishonest act, drag
me forth and expose me," he said then ; and so, when
charged with shielding malefactors, he said : " No per
sonal consideration should stand in the way of performing
a public duty " ; and from that moment the prosecution
against the thieves had taken on vigor and direction.
The Congress which listened to his message indicated
great political changes. It contained a Democratic ma
jority. It had admitted to representation one hundred
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 435
and twelve ex-Confederate officers, who, combined with the
anti-Grant Republicans, were formidable in power. The
overjoyed Democrats determined at once upon making the
most of their opportunities. They appointed committee
after committee of investigation, with the plain purpose to
" smell out " frauds, and expose and weaken the adminis
tration and the Republican party before the country. They
made great show of being virtuously indignant at the reign
of corruption in high circles, whereas, in fact, it was merely
political warfare. Every committee had an eye to the
coming Presidential election.
On the other hand, the leaders of the Republican party
had long known of these frauds in the revenue depart
ment, — as far back, indeed, as the elections of 1872, — but
had refrained from investigation because the offenders
were known to be high in the favor of the administration,
and their prosecution would endanger the party's success.
Now that the President had uttered his vigorous word,
and the Democratic Congress threatened exposure anyhow,
and for the reason, also, that Secretary Bristow saw his
opportunity to make a name for himself, the prosecution
went forward with a rush. The trials of certain officials
came on first in November at St. Louis, and Grant, having
in mind the possible criticism of the opposition, named
ex-Senator John B. Henderson (well known as an oppo
nent of the administration) as prosecuting attorney. Mr.
Henderson had voted against the impeachment of Andrew
Johnson, had failed of reelection to the Senate, and was
in the mood to push every case to a finish ; and Grant's
enemies acknowledged that he had forestalled criticism.
The prosecution had not gone far before it became
evident that General O. E. Babcock, the President's pri
vate secretary, had been on terms of extraordinary intimacy
with the chief offenders ; also, that Supervisor John A.
McDonald, one of the men under indictment, was a friend
of the President, and had been seen often in his company.
These things the opposition press took up and handled
freely.
Incriminating telegrams from General Babcock were
read before the jury, and published abroad over the land.
LIFE OF GRANT
Babcock immediately asked the privilege of explaining
these messages, and, upon being refused, appealed to the
President for a military court of inquiry. He was an officer
of the United States army, and his request was entirely
proper. It was granted. But before it began its sittings,
the grand jury of St. Louis indicted him as a conspirator
in the frauds against the government, and summoned him
to appear at St. Louis and show cause why he should not
go to jail.
Grant's enemies were mad with glee ; they were, indeed,
dazed by their sudden good fortune. The third-term dis
cussion was again becoming bitter. Four or five of the
great papers of the country professed to believe that Grant
was still plotting to spend his last days in the White House.
They knew his tenacity of purpose, and their feeling of
uneasiness, whether genuine or not, was flaming high
again. Their opposition had assumed the unreason and
vehemence of monomania. They were wolfishly avid for
any sort of material which could be used against the
" dread military dictator." " Grantism still walks abroad,"
they said.
Ex-Senator Henderson, as one of the most rancorous
of all the anti-Grant men, well knew the value of every
stripe laid upon the back of the administration, and in
speaking before the jury took occasion to reflect with great
force and directness upon the President himself. After
detailing the plan of Commissioner Douglass to uncover
the St. Louis frauds by changing Supervisor McDonald
to a Pennsylvania district, he repeated the charge that
Grant, at the request of McDonald (or his friends), had
personally revoked this order, thus thwarting the investi
gation in St. Louis.
Raising his voice, and speaking with fierce heat, Mr.
Henderson inquired : " What business had the President
to interfere with Douglass's order? . . . Why did Doug
lass bend the supple hinges of the knee and permit
any interference by the President? This was Douglass's
own business, and he stood responsible for it under his
official oath. He was bound to listen to no dictation
from the President, Babcock, or any other officer, and
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 437
it was his duty to see that that order was carried out, or
resign."
When the report of this speech reached the press, the
reading public divided itself into two camps — those who
commended the boldness of the attorney, and those who
believed he had gone out of his way to make political
capital against Grant. Some days later the cabinet unani
mously voted to remove Mr. Henderson ; and it was cur
rently reported at the time that Grant had exclaimed, in
roused indignation: "I am not on trial!" Henderson's
place was filled at once, on Grant's order, by a pronounced
Democrat, Mr. Broadhead of St. Louis, and the trial pro
ceeded.
This impolitic act of the President and his cabinet opened
the flood-gates of invective. All that had gone before, in
way of abuse, was but the babbling of children in com
parison with the shrieks of madmen. Open charges of
thievery were made against the President. It was boldly
asserted that he had made use of his great office to pile up
millions of secret wealth. Cartoonists delineated him in
the act of throttling Justice to save his pet child Babcock.
Demands for his impeachment were made, and regrets
were expressed that his great office prevented his imme
diate arrest and trial. There were men eager to see him
stripped of his honors, manacled, and clothed in a convict's
uniform. The hate expressed in these cartoons and edi
torials is almost inconceivable to one who dwells outside
the insatiate vengeance of political warfare.
These were terrible days for the hero of Vicksburg and
the friend of peace. He loved Babcock, and he had trusted
McDonald and McKee. It seemed impossible that one so
close to him should be guilty, and he not merely let the
trials go on — he stood at Bristow's right hand and strength
ened him throughout. It was reported that there was
" great dissension in the cabinet," and that " Bristow would
go next." Others better informed said: " It is a mistake
to infer dissension in the cabinet. Its members are united
and harmonious." In fact, President Grant considered
Bristow a political enemy, but retained him in office to
finish his work.
43^ LIFE OF GRANT
Grant again showed his obstinate purpose never to
desert a friend under fire by retaining Babcock in his ser
vice up to the day of his trial. To have done otherwise
would have been a confession of belief in his friend's guilt,
and would have prejudiced the jury against him.
Few men in the history of the nation ever had such an
experience as now fell to Grant's lot. Adherents fell away
on every side. From being one of the strongest he sud
denly became one of the weakest public men of his time.
If he had gone before the people at that moment as candi
date for Chief Executive, he would have been defeated by
his own party. Even his stanchest friends were annoyed
and irritated beyond measure at his course. He had no
legal right to employ Babcock as his secretary. He had
been too much seen in the company of men like McDonald.
He had not exercised proper care in his selection of officers,
choosing them because he fancied them personally rather
than because of their proved public worth. He was too
unsuspicious and confiding. Shrewd as he was in certain
directions, he was now seen to have been imposed upon
throughout.
McDonald, Joyce, and McKee were convicted and sen
tenced to State's prison, and as Babcock's trial came on
in late January, it became clear that an attempt would be
made to involve and impeach Grant himself. The trial
filled the whole nation with apprehension. To find the
President guilty of even a knowledge of this widely ex
tended fraud against the treasury would be not merely a
national disgrace — it would be a national calamity. And
yet, with ferocious joy, the leaders of the anti-third-term
movement seized upon and held high in the light every
shred of evidence against him. The trial of the secretary
came to be a trial of the chief, and proceeded in a city
filled with Grant's enemies.
With that peculiar, immitigable, almost sullen constancy
which he displayed on occasion, Grant stood by his friend.
The virtue might have been a mediaeval one, as a critic said,
but it was nevertheless a virtue. He walked with the
accused man down to the crumbling verge of ruin with the
same courage with which he fought his great battles. If
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 439
he knew Babcock to be guilty, the courage was none the
less great. So far as the outside world was concerned, he
seemed to fear no assault and dreaded no epithet, but he
grew old under the weight of universal censure, and a
hunted look came into his face. He had come a long way
from the halcyon days of 1868, when universal praise bent
over him like a sunny sky.
When it was announced that the President himself would
appear as a witness in Babcock's favor, the excitement
became painfully intense. It was known that his purpose
was to shield Babcock and, his enemies said, to vindicate
himself. His deposition was taken at the White House.
In answer to inquiry, the President ?aid that he had
known General Babcock since Vicksburg; that he was at
present his private secretary ; that his relations with him
were very confidential ; that he had regarded him as effi
cient and faithful; that his reputation was good; that
General Babcock had not, to his knowledge, influenced his
action with reference to the appointments at St. Louis.
He did not remember that Babcock ever spoke to him
concerning any charges against Joyce or McDonald. He
stated positively that Babcock did not seek in any way to
influence him with regard to investigation of the whisky
fraud.
He had no recollection, he said, of having any talk with
McDonald on any matter touching his official position or
business. " He certainly did not intercede with me to
prevent investigation," he definitely said.
In answer to a question concerning the order changing
the supervisors around from one district to another, he
replied that, some time before Mr. Bristow came in, Com
missioner Douglass expressed the idea, and thought it
would lead to the discovery of any frauds that might be
going on. He expressed himself favorable to it at the
time, but nothing was done until it became evident that
frauds actually existed. After the order was finally issued,
strenuous objections were made by prominent public men.
He resisted the effort to have the order revoked until he
became convinced that it should be revoked or suspended
in the interest of detecting frauds that had already been
44° LIFE OF GRANT
committed. In a conversation with Supervisor Tutten,
these things were gone over, and Mr. Tutten said : " If
the order were revoked, it would be looked upon as a
triumph by the thieves, and would throw them off their
guard, and special agents could then make successful raids
upon the suspected distilleries."
" This argument was so good," the President continued,
" that I suspended the ord'er right there, writing the direc
tions on a card with a pencil."
Returning to General Babcock, he said he did not re
member that Babcock had spoken to him about the. order,
or exhibited any special interest in it, but he had com
plained very bitterly of his treatment after Mr. Hender
son's speech in the Avery trial. He stated that no one
had presumed to approach him to endeavor to prevent the
trial of the guilty persons from St. Louis or elsewhere, and
that if there had been any misconduct on the part of
General Babcock, he would have known it.
The effect of Grant's testimony was very great. It
undoubtedly served to acquit General Babcock of com
plicity in the frauds. McDonald and his friends claimed
that the President had perjured himself to save a friend.
Grant's friends said : " This is impossible. Ulysses Grant is,
above all else, a truthful man. It is hard for him to dis
simulate — impossible for him to lie, even in a case like
this." Nevertheless, there were those who continued to
insist that he had committed the most colossal perjury,
and this belief continued to be reflected in bitter articles
and cartoons in the opposition press.
There were more things hidden beneath all this than
any one man knew. Every office-seeker who had a dif
ference with the President, every politician who wished to
advance his own or a friend's chances for office, every
leader who envied Grant, and every sensational corre
spondent of the metropolitan papers, stood ready to
connive in the great soldier's downfall.
All this contention had a singular opportuneness. It
came just in time to affect the political situation, which
was as full of passion as in 1864, when the perpetuity of
the nation seemed to depend upon Lincoln's reelection.
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 441
And yet, in spite of the enormous political pressure, in
spite of a hostile majority in Congress, in spite of the
malignant desire of the most skilful and designing political
leaders, paid lawyers, and in spite of the personal enemies
of the President, not one line of direct evidence was ever
developed which pointed to his complicity in these frauds.
The bitterest of his critics at last took this stand : " We
do not believe the President has been in the slightest de
gree party to these frauds. On the contrary, he meant
every word he said in his famous edict, ' Let no guilty
man escape.' '
He meant to the full, also, his reply to Secretary Bris-
tow, who insinuated that he had something to tell, but
cabinet courtesy forbade.- " I beg to relieve you from all
obligations of secrecy on this subject," Grant immediately
wrote to Bristow, " and desire not only that you may
answer all questions relating to it, but that all members
of my cabinet and ex-members of my cabinet may also
be called upon to testify in regard to the same matter."
He flung his gauntlet down in right knightly fashion, and
challenged inquiry. His life would justify it. There was
a certain majesty in this defiance of his snarling detractors.
" Do your worst; tell all you know," he said, in effect,
and history must record the absolute failure of investiga
tion to lay a distinct charge against his name.
Other troubles quickly followed. Scarcely was the
acquittal of Babcock made public when Secretary of War
Belknap, one of the most popular men in public life, was
indicted for making use of his high position for purposes
of personal gain. One of the post-traders at Fort Sill,
upon being brought before an investigation committee,
testified that he had secured his position through the de
ceased wife of Secretary Belknap by the payment of six
thousand dollars a year, and that he had faithfully com
plied with these conditions, making payment every four
months ; that he had continued to do so after the death of
Mrs. Belknap, and that the secretary himself had con
tinued to receipt for these payments.
All this the secretary himself, in the presence of the
President, admitted to be true. In an agony of shame
442 LIFE OF GRANT
and sorrow, he told his chief that he had supposed the
sums receipted for came from an investment of his wife's
private income. He begged the privilege of resigning at
once, in order to save the administration from further dis
grace. This was granted, and he went out a private
civilian, to fall under indictment by a jury.
The shadow of this disgrace also rested upon Grant.
As one of his opponents said : " He may himself be en
tirely innocent, but his stubborn adherence to his friends
in disgrace has covered him with a cloud. He has been
too anxious and too active in his efforts to save his friends.
He let Williams go only when public sentiment became
overpowering. He let Delano and Richardson and Cres-
well go, when he ought to have put them on trial. He
interfered with the evidence, and saved Babcock, and now
he accepts the resignation of Belknap as if to save him from
impeachment. All this has an evil look, and if the Presi
dent is suspected of complicity with these men, he has
himself to blame."
As over against these insinuations, the friends of Grant
claimed that he had stood nobly by Secretary Bristow in
his prosecution; that the evidence had been insufficient
to convict Babcock even in a hostile city, and that the
President, being an unsuspicious man of guileless tempera
ment, had not perceived the duplicity of men whom he
trusted ; and as for Belknap, Grant was not the only one
deceived. The Secretary of War had been one of the
most popular and trusted men of the party. His disgrace
could in no wise reach the President.
The bitter denunciations of Grant for the sins and short
comings of his subordinates were so manifestly unfair that
they could not help being followed by a reaction. It was
absurd to hold the President personally responsible for
everything which happened amiss, and it was equally
absurd to apportion the credit of all wise measures among
unknown statesmen. In other words, a campaign of abuse,
which loaded all responsibility upon the Executive and
denied him all credit, was too bitterly partizan to make
any permanent impression upon the minds of the people.
It was pointed out by his friends that Washington had
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 443
been assailed with even greater bitterness and obloquy ;
that he had been alternately lashed and lampooned in a
way incredible at the present day. John Quincy Adams
was charged with all sorts of crimes, and even Mr. Adams
stooped to accuse President Jackson of pretending to be
sick in order to excite sympathy. Jackson and Van Buren,
according to the newspapers of the time, were the equals
of Caligula and Nero ; Van Buren " a Talleyrand without
his intellect, or a George III. without his insanity."
It must be remembered, the friends of the administra
tion went on, that President Grant did not begin at the
beginning of the American government. He began where
Johnson left off. He was obliged to take up a thoroughly
demoralized nation, with all the vices and abuses which
had grown up at the close of a great war under the rule
of a man whom the people had nearly impeached. He
found the present bad civil-service system in operation,
and so bound up with the selfish ambitions of local politi
cians that it was impossible to change it. Most of the
appointments had been made by members of Congress
who clung to their traditional prerogatives as the only
means of keeping in office. It was impossible for the
President to even sign the commissions of the office
holders.
It was a time of speculation, of cupidity, and of corrup
tion. Dishonesty was not confined to official circles. The
war being over, the people had turned their attention to
making money, and the corruption that was in private life
had reached in upon and rotted official life. The adminis
tration shared the characteristics of the times.
The faults and the limitations of President Grant were
obvious. They needed no excuse or palliation, and he
would be the last man to ask such excuse. He had taken
high and difficult public trust without previous political
experience, and very naturally had made mistakes. He
had been pitted against the keen, shrewd, practised manipu
lators of public affairs, and in some cases he had been
worsted. Leading politicians, angered by his distrust of
them, had retaliated upon him and his administration.
But in the main all the great features of his public policy,
444 LIFE OF GRANT
and all the measures really vital in the progress of the
nation, will be remembered and approved by the states
manship of the future. The editors whose criticisms are
most severe, it was urged, will scarcely care to read, even
ten years hence, the articles they have published in dero
gation of Ulysses Grant.
It was perfectly evident that Grant as a candidate for a
third term was unpopular, even had these investigations
been put out of mind. The sentiment of the people was
powerfully set against his continuance in office, and the
general himself stood by his letter of the previous summer.
The time had come when his great military mind was out
of place and a menace to the nation's peace.
The interest centered in his candidate. " Whom will
Grant support?" was the question. Though about to go
out of office, he was the overshadowing figure in the United
States, and it was felt that whichever way his interest went
success would go. Elaine was the most important political
leader in the field, but he had violent prejudices, and had
roused destructive antagonisms, and Grant did not believe
he could be nominated. Bristow the President considered
to be his secret enemy, and was therefore sternly opposed
to him. General Sherman early announced himself in
favor of General Hayes of Ohio, who had been elected
governor by a very large majority, and who was very
much spoken of as a candidate. When Grant gave out
his opinion that General Hayes was a suitable man the
struggle narrowed down to a contest between Hayes and
Elaine. Hayes was nominated easily, and Wheeler of
Indiana was placed second on the ticket.
The contest which began at once between Hayes and
Wheeler on the one side, and Tilden of New York and
Hendricks of Indiana on the other, became exceedingly
bitter and exciting. The battles of the war and the mea
sures of reconstruction were fought all over again, with the
most acrid and intemperate phraseology. The question of
federal interference in the South, the Civil Rights Bill,
charges of illegal voting, and all the other sad accompani
ments of reconstruction, came again to the front.
If the Southern States could be carried for Tilden, he
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 445
would be elected, and the temptation to intimidation and
fraud in the South was very great. It was foreseen that
if the election should be close, it would be disputed. And
all eyes were turned upon President Grant, as November
came on, to know what he would do with regard to pre
venting violence and wrong in the South, and whether he
would sustain the Republican candidate if he should receive
a majority of votes cast. He issued an order to Sherman
to keep the peace at all cost, and the election passed more
peaceably than had been anticipated. The trouble began
after the result was partially known. The election was
very close, the Democrats claiming a victory. The Re
publicans claimed that the Southern States had been car
ried by fraud and intimidation, and said that Tilden could
never legally take his seat in the White House. To this
the Democrats replied that the South may have been partly
carried by fraud, but was the Republican party in the
North free from a like crime? Allowing even for some
fraudulent votes, it was still clear, they said, that Tilden
was elected. He should not be cheated of his honors.
The decision passed to the electoral college.
Immediately after election, the President telegraphed to
General Sherman: "No man worthy the office of Presi
dent should be willing to hold it if counted in or placed
there by fraud. Either party can afford to be disap
pointed in the result, but the country cannot afford to
have the result tainted by the suspicion of illegal or false
returns." And later, when the election had passed to the
electoral college, and a dispute arose between the Senate
and the House with regard to who should count the elec
toral ballots, he urged some permanent legislation with
regard to the matter. And when the Electoral Bill came
before him, he promptly signed it, saying :
The bill may not be perfect, but it is calculated to meet the
present condition of the question and of the country. The
country is agitated. It needs aid. It desires peace and quiet,
and harmony between all parties and all sections. Its industries
are arrested, labor unemployed, capital idle, and enterprise para
lyzed, by reason of the doubt and anxiety attending the uncer
tainty of a double claim to the Chief Magistracy of the nation.
446 LIFE OF GRANT
It wants to be assured that the result of the election will be
accepted without resistance from the supporters of the disap
pointed candidate, and that its highest officer shall not hold his
place with a questioned title of right. Believing that the bill
will secure these ends, I give it my signature.
His whole attitude in this matter was so fine that it
secured the commendation of the reasonable on both sides.
He let it be known privately that whoever was constitu
tionally elected would be seated ; and whatever his critics
might think of him in other regards, they knew him to be
a man of his word. He was in fact as in name the com
mander of the army and navy. At the same time, he
hesitated to use the military. Only when the prevention
of actual bloodshed demanded it, and when called upon
by the governors of the States, did he order troops to the
scenes of disorder.
His final days were, however, days of almost martial
action. His firm hand was kept constantly upon the war
department. Troops were shifted, arsenals were guarded,
malcontents were watched, and every precaution was
taken to prevent the fire-eaters of either side from actual
violence. With an irresolute man or an insincere man in
his place, trouble would have resulted. But the country
knew Grant. He was still the captain. His action
throughout this period did much to redeem the disrepute
into which his administration had fallen.
He had announced that he would hold his place until
his successor was duly and properly inaugurated. This
was to cover the space between the 4th of March, which
fell on Sunday, and the public inauguration on Monday.
He was present on Saturday, when the new Executive
privately took the oath of office, and he rode in the same
carriage with General Hayes, and was by his side when
the oath of office was publicly administered. By this
action he warned all disturbers that President-elect Hayes
was to take his seat. Protest must take the forms of law.
He did not intend to have two governments, or any South
American pronunciamentos. He was profoundly grateful
when the ceremony ended in peace.
The administration of President Grant closed in shadow ;
U. S. Grant, age 54 years.
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 447
there is no evading that. If he had sought vindication at
the polls, it would have been denied to him. His adminis
tration had not met expectations, but that is no profound
argument against it. It is probable that no rule by any
man, however just, could have more nearly satisfied or
unified the warring elements of that time.
The criticisms against it which remained valid after the
passions of that day had cooled are these: It was semi-
military in character. It was a personal government.
Though not intended by Grant himself, his cabinet was
continually changing, and the country was continually
irritated by reports of disagreement between the Chief
Executive and his advisers. Beginning in confusion, the
cabinet continued through turmoil, and ended in dishonor.
No one can tell whether this might not have happened to
any other President, but there it stands, a condition to be
apologized for. His conception of his cabinet as aides
was purely military, but changed somewhat toward the
last, though he never found himself able to tolerate men
whom he knew to be conniving within his official family
for their own personal aggrandizement, or, indeed, those
whom he personally disliked.
In the executive department he considered himself
supreme, and yet believed that he and all other executive
officers were not concerned with law-making. They were
all servants alike of the government, pledged not to ques
tion, but to execute, the will of the people.
Had he begun by attempting to unify the political
factions of his party, by choosing to office men whose
ability and character had already secured for them high
place as leaders and statesmen, he might have avoided a
part of the strife which followed. But he did not. He
distrusted politicians, and determined that his should be a
government by men of character and integrity rather than
of political captains. He selected men whom he person
ally admired, and whom he cared to have meet with him
in daily intercourse. Thus he alienated at the start men
like Sumner, Seward, Schurz, Dana, and Blaine, and a
large part of his troubles sprang from the jealousy and
anger and arrogance of these men, who believed them-
448 LIFE OF GRANT
selves his superiors in intelligence and political fore
sight.
Thus, his selections being personal, the dishonesty of
men like Belknap reflected upon him directly. He took
men from obscure positions, and was answerable to the
public for his choice in immensely larger measure than he
would have been in selecting men like Sumner and Seward,
for whom the public, in a sense, stood warranty. This, it
will be seen, was a political departure on his side, and,
while apparently the common-sense and reasonable posi
tion for him to take, resulted in trouble and in dishonor.
Whether he would have escaped trouble and dishonor
by honoring Sumner and his like must forever remain a
question.
The shadow which streams from the charges brought
against Babcock, Belknap, Schenck, and others high in
the administration will probably remain the principal blot
upon Grant's administration.
It is now seen that he was largely right. He was right
on the reconstruction question, which was, after all, the
principal work which he had set himself to do. He was
right on civil-service reform. He was right on the Indian
question, and the policy which he inaugurated continues
side by side with civil service. He was right in the matter
of governmental economy, in the reduction of taxation,
and in his encouragement to industry. He was right in
his intention with regard to the improvement of the District
of Columbia, believing that Washington was to be one of
the favorite winter cities of the nation. He was right on
financial questions. Although his position with regard
to the demonetization of silver may be questioned by
some, his opposition to inflation is to-day upheld. Whether
he was right upon the Santo Domingo question is not yet
settled ; but this much is certain : his intentions were high
and his position unselfish. He was right in his course
toward Mexico and toward England ; and if his sugges
tions with regard to Cuba had been carried out, that long-
suffering island might long since have been at peace.
Therefore, in view of all these questions upon which his
position was, at least, without self-seeking and based upon
DAYS OF GREAT TRIALS 449
justice, it may be that the Grant administrations will finally
appear to have been right upon all vital questions, and that
they failed only upon matters which are now seen to be of
minor importance. For the frauds in the Indian depart
ment or in the revenue department were actually of
small account compared with the fundamental problem of
reconstruction which filled his mind, and upon which he
always acted promptly, yet dispassionately, with unfailing
regard for law and justice.
CHAPTER XLVII
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD*
ATOTWITHSTANDING all charges against him,
l\l Ulysses Grant left the White House without any
considerable sum of money. He had a house in Galena,
and Mrs. Grant had a house in Washington ; he owned,
also, the Gravois farm, and some land in Chicago. But
neither of these three properties paid any considerable
dividend ; in fact, it is stated by John Russell Young that
the ex-President had nothing at the close of his adminis
tration except the houses which had been given him while
general of the army. The money paid to him as President
was spent in maintaining the dignity and hospitality of his
great office.
He was now a private citizen, general only by courtesy.
In a single hour he had stepped from the cares, the tumults,
the responsibilities of the head of the nation, to the silence
and peace and leisure of private life, carrying with him
the hundreds of friends whom he had raised to honor and
reward in public service. They were naturally averse to
this retirement, and began at once to hint that the " old
commander" would have the third term yet. For the
most part, however, even the anti- Grant forces considered
him out of politics, and their clamor against him ceased
as suddenly as it had begun.
Indeed, an appreciable reaction in public sentiment set
in, and receptions, dinners, and cordial street greeting met
* This chapter is based upon the English and American newspaper reports
of the day, and also (by permission) upon John Russell Young's book,
"Around the World with Grant."
450
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 451
the ex-President wherever he went. This became so
markedly spontaneous and genuine that he exclaimed to
a friend : " Why, it is just as it was immediately after the
war!" — thus revealing his direct and grateful pleasure in
the return of good will toward him. He was like a boy
released from school on a Saturday in June. Since the
firing on Fort Sumter he had not before enjoyed a single
day's complete release from absorbing daily duties. For
sixteen years he had borne constantly increasing responsi
bility. Now he had time to play.
He began at once to prepare for a trip abroad. He had
promised himself this trip some years before, and now it
was possible. He sold part of his stock, sent some of it
to the country, converted some of his goods into cash, and
put his affairs in order. His son Ulysses, not long out of
Harvard, had entered upon a business career, and to him
he intrusted his interests during his absence. Jesse, the
third son, was to accompany his parents abroad. Nellie,
the daughter, was married, and was living in England.
According to good authority, Grant had not more than
twenty-five thousand dollars with which to make the trip,
and with this amount he had three and sometimes four
persons to provide quarters for. The length of his trip,
he smilingly said, depended on how long this money held
out.
After several days of almost oppressive honors and
courtesies on the part of the city of Philadelphia, the
Grant party sailed (about the middle of May) for Liver
pool. Immense crowds of friends waved him good-by
from the wharves and from the troops of boats which
accompanied him down the bay. The general proved to
be as imperturbable at sea as he had been on the battle
field. He defied the elements, and enjoyed every hour of
the voyage. Those who were with him saw the lines of
care smooth out of his face. It was, indeed, his most
peaceful period since the quiet days in the Galena store.
On the eleventh day the vessel touched at Liverpool.
The cable had prepared the people for the arrival of the
great American, and a throng as immense as that which
bid him God-speed at Philadelphia filled the wharves and
452 LIFE OF GRANT
streets to welcome him to England. The mayor met him,
formally presenting the freedom of the city, and assuring
him of the high regard in which he was held by the Eng
lish people.
The general was very naturally amazed. He had started
on his journey as a private citizen, and had no expectation
of any popular or civic demonstration whatsoever. No
preparations had been made for it. The state department
had merely given him a letter which called the attention
of the republic's representatives abroad to his visit, and
requested them to give him every attention and considera
tion. No step beyond this had been taken to make his
visit in any sense official. Yet ten thousand English citi
zens of the middle condition crowded into the custom
house at Liverpool, eager to shake his hand.
At Manchester he was made the guest of the city, and
lodged in the town hall, which had never before been used
for a similar purpose. Here, as in Liverpool, he was pre
sented with the freedom of the city, and every possible
attention which could show him peculiar regard followed.
The people crowded to see him almost as if he were their
own sovereign ; and, to the surprise of the people at home,
the general replied to these greetings, and spoke well at
almost every one of the great meetings which followed.
He disclaimed these high honors. " I know this recep
tion is intended more for my country than for myself,"
he said again and again. His journey across the country
toward London was filled with scenes like those which
took place when he made his first trip to Chicago after
the surrender at Appomattox. However, up to the time
he entered London, not a single titled individual met him,
and the great dailies were cold and indifferent. The great
demonstrations at Liverpool and Manchester were entirely
among the mercantile and working classes, and unques
tionably were a revelation to the London press of General
Grant's power, as well as to the arrogant folk who stood
afar off and waited for him to appear.
It mattered little whether General Grant as ex-President
should socially precede dukes or not, but it did matter
that the great heart of England's citizenry went out toward
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 453
him as the representative of principles which were to bind
the English-speaking race closer together. Doubtless
much of idle curiosity moved the people in thus coming
to look upon the great warrior, but there was, after all,
a solid residuum of understanding admiration.
Meanwhile, in London, Adam Badeau and Minister
Pierrepont were arguing the question of his social prece
dence with solemn fervor — to some little success, for it
was decided that the government should receive him as
an ex-sovereign, though the Prince of Wales had deter
mined that birth and the divine right of descent should
not in any social way be weakened by the coming of the
great commoner.
A considerable crowd of nameless citizens met General
Grant as he entered London. He was received by Minister
Pierrepont, on the part of the United States, and the papers
stated in obscure paragraphs that General Grant had ar
rived. No time was lost in making use of the general's
spare moments. He was formally introduced to the
Prince of Wales the morning after his arrival in the city,
and on the evening of the same day he dined with the
Duke of Wellington, son of the famous Iron Duke of
Waterloo.
Day by day the newspapers gave some slight attention
to his doings ; indeed, their interest grew, and not many
days after his arrival, and just before the city took official
action, editorials of greater or less degree of fervency
appeared, stating the claims which General Grant had
upon the people of England. They were, on the whole,
just and well-considered.
On the evening of the 5th of June Minister Pierrepont
gave him a reception, which was crowded with notable fig
ures in English society, and formal dinners and social func
tions came on swiftly. In these receptions the general was
placed in most trying positions. He was not only among
absolute strangers, but he was among a people whose
habits were widely different from his own, some of whom
were rudely censorious. He was here brought in personal
contact with personages in wigs, with titled dowagers in
trailing robes, with multitudinous youths in uniforms, and
454 LIFE OF GRANT
with blase, insolent fops, who stared at him with glassy
eyes as though he were a performing bear.
Forms were minute and intricate. And yet he made
a goodly figure through it all. His plain black dress,
without ornament of any kind, had a certain distinction,
and a powerful simplicity was in his sturdy presence. He
was not graceful ; he was not courtly of speech ; but to
all who came he was unembarrassed, absolutely self-con
tained, and masterful. Every one remarked on his dignity
and his good looks. " Surrounded by fine specimens of
English manhood though he was, his robust form and rosy
face were conspicuous for their healthy qualities." " He
looks like a soldier," said one guest ; and another replied :
" He is undoubtedly the greatest warrior of his age."
Many regrets were expressed because he did not wear his
uniform ; it would have been a pleasure to see him wear
ing a uniform which no other man was entitled to wear.
They were worth while, these receptions, for they
brought him in contact with the real kings of England,
that is to say, its men of science, literature, statecraft, art,
and law. He met, also, the great representative figures
from the ranks of the toilers. He saw England from top
to bottom.
On the 1 5th of June the freedom of the city, the highest
honor within the gift of the corporation of London, was
conferred upon him. The ceremonies, which were very
imposing, took place in Guildhall, one of the oldest struc
tures in the city. Eight hundred guests were invited to
the banquet, and General Grant sat on the left hand of
the lord mayor.
In his address his Honor modestly said : " You must
bear with us, general, if we make much of an ex-President
of the great republic of the New World visiting the home
of his fathers." He spoke of Grant's great deeds as a
soldier, but passed on to emphasize with equal force his
high career as President. He ended by presenting Gen
eral Grant, in the name of the honorable court, the right
hand of fellowship as a citizen of London.
The general's reply was very modest and very apt. He
expressed his surprise at his reception. It was entirelv
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 455
unexpected, and peculiarly gratifying. He again dis
claimed the honor, however, believing that it was intended
quite as much for America as for himself, and again said:
" I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have
never advocated it, except as a means for peace."
A little later in the day, the lord mayor having pro
posed General Grant's health, the general felicitously re
plied : " My Lord Mayor, ladies, and gentlemen : Habits
formed in early life and early education press upon us as
we grow older. I was brought up a soldier, not to talking.
I am not aware that I ever fought two battles on the same
day and in the same place, and that I should be called
upon to make two speeches on the same day under the
same roof is beyond my understanding. What I do
understand is that I am much indebted to all of you for
the compliment you have paid me."
As a matter of fact, General Grant was rapidly becom
ing a ready speaker. He spoke as often as three times a
day, and seemed to have no secrets. He dined with
newspaper men, and talked to them with the utmost
freedom, whereat the American journals were much
amazed.
One honor followed another. All that England could
do to show its regard for General Grant and America was
done. Thousands of invitations from the stateliest homes
in London showered upon him. He dined with the Prince
of Wales at Marlborough House, and late in June was
invited by the queen to proceed to Windsor Castle and
spend the night ; and not many days thereafter he received
a deputation of the working-men of London and the pro
vinces, who brought an address of welcome to him. In
reply, the general said, with deep significance :
" I have received attentions, and have had invitations,
free hand-shakings, and presentations from different classes
of people, and from the government, and from the con
trolling element of cities; but there is no reception I am
prouder of than this one to-day " ; and there was a forth
right sincerity in his voice which carried conviction. The
English nobility were unimportant in the face of the Eng
lish people.
456 LIFE OF GRANT
He left for the Continent early in July, visiting Brussels,
Baden, and the Black Forest, thence going to Lucerne, In-
terlaken, and Bern, and arriving at Geneva late in July. He
returned to Edinburgh on the 3ist of August, where the
freedom of that city was presented to him. He made a
tour through Scotland, being everywhere received with
the same honor as in England. He returned to London
by way of Newcastle, Sunderland, Warwick, and other
places of historic interest.
It became evident to certain of the American papers
that they had miscalculated. Grant was something more
than a mere ex-President, to sink (as many of the ex-Presi
dents had done) into feebleness and obscurity. With all
his faults, he was a great man, one of the predominant
figures in American history. The meeting at Liverpool,
the ovation which followed almost immediately at Man
chester, and the London receptions, opened the eyes of
his critics, and many of the journals which had spent
much of their time reviling him as President now expe
rienced a change of heart. They filled long editorial col
umns with spread-eagle gratulations over these old-world
demonstrations. General Grant represented the power
of the American nation, these editors stated, and the
honors he was receiving were gratifying to all America,
as well as to the personal friends of the great commander.
But the English people not only recognized him as a
representative of the American people, and one of the
great commanders of the world : they honored him also as
a statesman. They by no means slurred over his adminis
trations. It has been well said that the judgments of a
foreign nation resemble the judgments of posterity, and
the men across the ocean perceived, as most Americans
could not, the essential singleness, greatness, and sincerity
of Grant's rule. He stood for peace at home and abroad ;
he stood for arbitration, for universal justice and fraternity ;
and this the English people knew. The petty things, the
local jealousies, the envies and assaults which were so large
in the eyes of American political critics, and which were
exaggerated by means of newspaper scare-heads into na
tional importance in the States, did not reach so far as the
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 457
Old World. They became of small account when the keen
winds of the broad sea touched them. Thus the great
minds of England and Europe got proper historical per
spective on Grant and his deeds.
But even this did not explain the immense enthusiasm
of the people of Manchester and Edinburgh. To these
people of the working and mercantile classes of Great
Britain, General Grant was something more even than a
soldier and statesman. He stood to them as the greatest
example of democratic attainment of his time. Unaided
and alone, he had climbed from the humble position of one
who labored in the field and toiled as clerk in a leather-
store to a command surpassing that of Wellington or
Napoleon. With birth all against him, without money
and without influential kinsfolk, he had demonstrated that
it was possible for a working-man in America to become
the equal of the greatest sovereigns of the world. He
embodied, therefore, the natural desire for freedom and
honor of every ambitious man of working condition. He
expressed their secret or avowed belief in the falsity and
injustice of class and privilege, and the sham of " divine
right"
For these reasons they crowded to see him, these bluff
merchants, pale mechanics, and sturdy farmers, as he
passed on his way to London, the home of the nobility.
Of such significance was the meeting at Newcastle. In
the local newspaper of that day twenty columns were de
voted to a report of the meeting. " Not for many years
has the grass of the town moor been covered by so vast
an assembly as that gathered to receive General Grant."
This mighty demonstration resembled a revolutionary
convention. The proposal that the laboring-men should
do honor to General Grant came from Mr. Burt, Member
of Parliament, and the Trades Council heartily took up
the suggestion. The order for assembling went out to the
working-men of every condition, and they rose from
the earth like an army. They came from all parts of the
northern country. Thousands of pitmen climbed out of
the mines of Durham, Hepworth, and Ravensworth col
lieries, and joined the Northumberland miners, the New-
458 LIFE OF GRANT
castle dock laborers and trimmers, and all the mechanics,
machinists, clerks, and working-men of Newcastle. It
seemed that eighty thousand men had place in this great
assembly.
The Member of Parliament made the address of wel
come, and the general replied in one of the best speeches
of his life. He was profoundly moved. He spoke of the
dignity of labor, and recalled the fact that when wars come
they fall upon the many — the producing class. " I was
always a man of peace," he said, " and I have always
advocated peace, though educated a soldier. I never
willingly, of my own accord, advocated war." He spoke
of the friendly relations existing between the two nations,
and said that it had been the sincere hope of his official
life to maintain that friendship ; and the tremendous roar
of his audience showed their unity of agreement.
In this wise he was described :
" He looked as much like an ordinary Tyne-side skip
per as possible, — open-browed, firm-faced, bluff, honest,
and unassuming, — and everybody at once settled in his
own mind that the general would do. The cheers became
warmer and warmer as that quiet, strong, thoroughly
British face grew upon them ; and as the applause in
creased in power, General Grant, who had at first merely
touched his hat to the multitude, bared his head in
acknowledgment of the majestic welcome.
" While the general was speaking, the vast concourse,
mustering at least eighty thousand, interpreted the speech
which they could not hear after their own thoughts, and
applauded now and again with might and main. When
the general finished, everybody who had not yet shouted
felt it incumbent to begin at once ; and those who had
bellowed themselves hoarse made themselves still hoarser.
And right in the center of the crowd, little shining rivulets
glistening on his ebony face, his face glowing with intense
excitement, the whole soul within him shining out as
through a dark curtain, stood a negro, devouring the
general with a gaze of fervid admiration and respect and
gratitude, which flashed out the secret of the great liber
ator's popularity."
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 459
In Leamington, at a similar meeting, the general said :
" Although it has been my misfortune to have been en
gaged in as many battles as it was possible for an American
soldier of my generation, I have never been for war." At
Birmingham, on the loth of October, he addressed the
working-men, glorifying labor, and celebrating the democ
racy of America. On the same day he addressed the
International Arbitration Union, and again glorified
peace.
The speaker of the evening eloquently praised Grant
for his treatment of the Indians, and for his attitude
toward the freedmen. " You guided them in their falter
ing steps as they marched out of bondage ; you defended
them from their enemies ; you cared for them in their dis
tresses ; you aided them in obtaining education ; and you
claimed for them the rights of citizens," the speaker said,
facing the general, and ended by invoking blessings and
honor upon him.
To this Grant replied : " I have long been an advocate
of the cause you represent. I would gladly see the mil
lions of men in arms who are now supported by the in
dustry of nations return to industrial pursuits and thus
become self-sustaining, and so take off the tax upon labor
which is now levied for their support." And in another
speech he replied to the complimentary allusion of some
speaker to his peaceful retirement of the great army at
the close of the American war by saying : " I disclaim all
praise and credit for that one thing. If the speaker had
ever been in my position for four years, and had under
gone all the anxiety and care I had in the management of
those large armies, he would appreciate how happy I was
to be able to say they could be dispensed with."
On the 24th of October he made a trip to Paris. His
reception there was not so cordial as in England, for the
reason, perhaps, that his stern opposition to the French in
Mexico had been misunderstood, and also because of his
letter of congratulation to the German government at
the close of the Franco-Prussian War. Victor Hugo had
expressed the bitterest feeling against him in a poem,
soon after his letter ; and yet at bottom these two great
460 LIFE OF GRANT
ones were in complete accord in their hatred of tyranny
and their love of freedom and democracy. Grant repre
sented the exact opposite of the Napoleonic ideas of war,
glory, and conquest Moreover, a large part of the French
nation was not democratic, but monarchical, in sentiment,
and naturally that party made no concealment of its dis
like of General Grant.
He was received with the utmost cordiality by Gam-
betta, and by President MacMahon, who wished to show
General Grant his armies. This the general politely re
fused. He had a powerful aversion to any military review,
he explained, and wished to escape every reminder of war.
He permitted himself, however, to receive such social
attentions from the Americans and the French as they
cared to give. He met Gambetta most informally, and
was profoundly impressed by him. He spent several
weeks in the American colony, and left early in December
for Italy, Egypt, and the Holy Land.
Christmas dinner was eaten on the war-ship Vandalia,
off Palermo. In Egypt the khedive placed his own vessel
at the general's command, and a trip up the Nile occupied
some weeks of January. After visiting the Holy Land,
he returned to Paris by way of Florence, Milan, and
Rome, and was everywhere the recipient of great honors.
Throngs of people shook his hand and said complimentary
things to him, all of which he bore in his patient, wordless
way. His silence amazed and awed his guests.
He reentered Paris in May, and being a very much
overworked man, concluded to seek relief among the easy
going Dutch. He was quite to the taste of the men of
Holland by reason of his quiet manner and few words.
He passed to Berlin late in June. Next to London, Berlin
interested him more than any other capital city of the Old
World. He was profoundly eager to study Germany.
He knew the mighty force of the German people. As
Victor Hugo said, " Germany is not merely a nation : she
is the well of nations." Not only that, but Germany
possessed two men in whom General Grant had a peculiar
interest — the emperor, and his great chancellor, Prince
Bismarck.
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 461
True, it was a military nation, and of things warlike
General Grant did not approve. The moment he entered
Germany's boundaries he became aware of its enormous
military strength. Uniforms were everywhere; military
organizations existed in every village ; and Von Moltke,
the great Dane who had thrown his fortunes with the
German army so many years before, held these terrible
forces in his hand. Him, too, the general was eager to meet.
Bayard Taylor, minister to Berlin at that time, came
courteously down the road to meet General Grant and his
party and conduct them into the city. At the earliest
moment the general called upon the great chancellor, who
was at this time very much engaged with a session of the
Berlin Congress. The meeting took place in the building
called the Bismarck Palace. Bismarck met the general
with both hands extended, his face eager and full of the
light of welcome. It was perfectly evident that he was
not merely curious to see General Grant, but eager to
make his acquaintance and to show his admiration and
esteem. He was in uniform, and looked old and care
worn, his hair and mustache being quite white.
After a few moments of complimentary greeting, he
expressed surprise at rinding Grant so young a man. To
this the general replied smilingly that he was at that period
of life where no higher compliment could be paid him
than that of being called a young man.
Bismarck spoke in the tenderest way of the old emperor,
upon whom an attempt at assassination had just been
made, which prevented him from seeing General Grant.
The general shortly afterward remarked, with a smile,
that he had accepted an invitation from the crown prince
to witness a review, and then said : " The truth is, I am
more of a farmer than a soldier. I take little or no interest
in military affairs. I never went into the army without
regret, and never retired without pleasure."
The prince spoke then of America's happy lot in that
she need fear no war, and added : " What always seemed
so sad to me about your last great war was that you were
fighting your own people. That is always so terrible in
war — so very hard."
462 LIFE OF GRANT
" But it had to be done," said the general.
" Yes ; you had to save the Union, just as we had to
save Germany."
" Not only to save the Union, but to destroy slavery,"
answered Grant.
" I suppose, however, the Union was the real sentiment,
the dominant sentiment."
" In the beginning, yes ; but as soon as slavery fired
upon the flag, we all felt — even those who did not object
to slaves — that slavery must be destroyed. We felt that
it was a stain to the Union that men should be bought
and sold like cattle. . . . There had to be an end to sla
very. We were fighting an enemy with whom we could
not make peace. We had to destroy him. No conven
tion, no treaty, was possible; only destruction."
As the general rose to go, he expressed his pleasure at
having met a man so well known and so highly esteemed
in America.
In answer, Bismarck replied : " General, the pleasure and
the honor are mine " ; and after shaking hands, General
Grant passed into the square, the guard presented arms,
he saluted, and strolled slowly back to his hotel.
He left Berlin soon after, visiting Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden. He spent the Fourth of July in Hamburg,
and in response to a toast at a dinner given by the Ameri
can consul a day or two later, the general said : " I must
dissent from one remark of our consul to the effect that I
saved the country during the recent war. ... If I had
never held command, if I had fallen, if all our generals
had fallen, there were ten thousand behind us who would
have done our work just as well. . . . What saved the
Union was the coming forward of the young men of the
nation. . . . The humblest soldier who carried a musket
is entitled to as much credit for the results of war as those
who were in command."
At the close of July the general's party visited St.
Petersburg. He was met at once by the emperor's aide-
de-camp, Prince Gortchakoff, with kind messages from
the emperor ; and on the next day his Imperial Highness
Alexander and General Grant met.
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 463
The emperor was exceedingly cordial. He was very
much interested in the native races of America, and with
American methods of Indian warfare. At the close of
the interview he said : " Since the foundation of your
government, relations between Russia and America have
been of the friendliest character, and as long as I live
nothing shall be spared to continue this friendship."
To this the general quietly replied : " Although the two
governments are very opposite in their character, the great
majority of the American people are in sympathy with
Russia, and I hope this good feeling will long continue."
From St. Petersburg the general visited Moscow, where
he spent several pleasant days, passing on to Warsaw.
His next stop was in Vienna. After a tour in Austria and
France, the party took a short turn through Spain.
In Spain the general was received as a captain-general
of the Spanish army. The question of how to receive him
had been a source of tribulation to most European cabi
nets, but Spain avoided embarrassing situations by receiv
ing him as a great commander. Here he met Senor
Castelar, the ex- President of Spain, "the one man whom
he really wished to see." He had an interview with the
king, who was at that time a melancholy young man of
about twenty. " The reception was stately and grave,"
but of little significance.
In Portugal he had a long conversation with the king
concerning the relations between the United States and
Portugal, and they parted on exceedingly good terms, the
king asking leave to present the general with the grand
cross of the Tower and Sword. This the general refused,
saying there was a law against officials accepting decoration
in his country, and he would rather, although no longer
in office, respect a law which it had been his duty to
administer.
After visiting Cordova, Seville, and Cadiz, he returned to
Paris and to England. From England he visited Ireland,
being received with great honor in Dublin, where he was
presented with the freedom of the city. The parchment
was contained in a very elaborate bog-oak casket. In
reply he said : " I am by birth a citizen of a country where
464 LIFE OF GRANT
there are more Irishmen, either native-born or the de-
scendents of Irishmen, than there are in all Ireland. I
have, therefore, had the honor and the pleasure of repre
senting more Irishmen and their descendants than the
Queen of England."
At Belfast enormous crowds of people greeted him,
and at other places he was loudly cheered, and thousands
surrounded his car with the hope of being able to shake
him by the hand. He returned to London, and on the
24th of January started on his way for India.
His party now consisted of himself and wife, his son,
Colonel Grant, Mr. Borie, formerly Secretary of the Navy,
Dr. Keating of Philadelphia, and John Russell Young.
His son Jesse had returned to America. The general
had been able unexpectedly to extend his vacation. Some
fortunate investments made by his son Ulysses had placed
at his disposal enough ready money to enable him to plan a
trip to the East, which would complete the circuit of the
globe. In letters to his family and to his friends he began
to express a growing uneasiness with regard to how he
should make a living after his play-spell was over, and to
these letters his friends replied in covert terms, saying:
" The people of the United States will see that you have
employment"
As a matter of fact, his political friends in the United
States were planning a great political coup. It was their
design to keep him abroad two years longer, and that he
should return just before the midsummer convention of
1880. They counted upon an immense enthusiasm for
him upon h s return, loaded with honors from European
peoples and rulers, and believed that his name would again
sweep the convention like a whirlwind.
Whether the general realized anything of this at this
time or not, he yielded nothing, but planned his outing
without the slightest regard to political warfare.
In his letters of this time he speaks as one with a divided
mind. He was homesick, and yet had no home to go to.
He wished to return, and he did not. He was eager to
see the East, and he was eager, at the same time, to return
to his own people.
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 465
In a letter written to Mr. Washburne from Paris, in
late December, 1878, he spoke of his determination to go
home by way of India, China, and Japan, and said that he
might be expected to reach Philadelphia in midsummer:
I shall want to remain on the Pacific coast six weeks or two
months. I spent two years there in early life, and always felt a
great desire to make it my future home.
He then adds this curious observation :
Nothing ever fell over me like a wet blanket so much as
my promotion to the lieutenant-generalcy. As junior major-
general in the regular army I thought my chances good for
being placed in command of the Pacific Division when the war
closed. As lieutenant-general all hope of that kind vanished.*
In a letter written from Singapore, early in April, he
said:
Since my last letter to you I have seen much of the world new
to me and but little visited by our countrymen. The reality is
different from my anticipation. . . . My idea had been rather
that English rule in this part of the globe was purely selfish. . . .
I will not say that I was all wrong, but I do say that Englishmen
are wise enough to know that the more prosperous they can
make the subject, the greater consumer he will become, the
greater will be the commerce between the home government and
the colony, and the greater the contentment of the governed.
The weather is getting very warm, and we must expect a good
deal of it before we get to a cool climate. In a few days we
start for Siam, and return here to take steamer for Hongkong.
I shall then visit Chinese ports as far north as Shanghai, and pos
sibly go to Peking before visiting Japan. It looks now as if we
would reach San Francisco as early as August.
He ends with this singular expression of uncertainty,
singular when it is recalled that he was receiving all the
honors of an ex-sovereign :
I am both homesick and dread going home. I have no home,
but must establish one after I get back, I do not know where.
* From " Letters to a Friend."
466 LIFE OF GRANT
In a letter a month later he writes from Hong Kong,
saying :
This is really the most beautiful place I have yet seen in the
East. The city is admirably built, and the scenery most pictur
esque.
Japan pleased him very much.
I have now been nearly a month in this most interesting
country and among these interesting people. China stands
where she did when her ports were first opened to foreign trade.
I think I see dawning, however, the beginning of a change.
When it does come China will rapidly become a powerful and rich
nation. Her territory is vast and full of resources. The popu
lation is industrious and frugal, intelligent and quick to learn.
They must, however, have the protection of a better and more
honest government to succeed.
Japan is beautiful beyond description. Every street and every
house is as clean as they can be made. The progress that has
been made in the last dozen years is almost inconceivable.
The man who most profoundly impressed him in China
was the great viceroy, Li Hung Chang. In fact, he re
garded him as among the four great master minds of
diplomacy and statecraft in the world, the others being
Bismarck, Gambetta, and Beaconsfield.
In a letter to Adam Badeau, he further says :
My reception by the civil and military authorities of China was
the most cordial ever extended to any foreigner, no matter what
his rank. The fact is, the Chinese like America better, or rather,
hate it less, than any other foreigners. The reason is palpable :
we are the only power that recognizes their right to control their
own domestic affairs.
But Japan, after all, interested him more than any other
country in the world, except England and his own land.
In a letter to Badeau, late in August, he wrote :
Our reception and entertainment in Japan has exceeded any
thing preceding it. At the end of the first year abroad I was
quite homesick, but determined to remain to see every country
in Europe, at least. Now, at the end of twenty-six months, I dread
u
GRANT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN GOES ABROAD 467
going back, and would not, if there was a line of steamers between
here and Australia ; but I shall go to my quiet little home in
Galena, and remain there until the cold drives me away.
Meanwhile, in America the feeling that his triumphal
tour was fitting him to be the greatest President the nation
had ever seen was growing in the minds of his friends.
In every letter that came to him this suggestion was
repeated. As early as March, 1878, he had written to
Badeau from Rome, saying:
Most every letter I get from the States asks me to remain
abroad. They have designs for me which I do not contemplate
for myself. It is probable that I will return to the United States
early in the fall or early next spring.
And in that quiet remark he informed his friends that
he did not intend to take part in any coup d'etat.
He was assured in the letters from home that if he re
turned too early the effect of his triumphant progress
through the nation from California to the Atlantic coast
would be frittered away in the long months of discussion
which would follow. They implored him to stay abroad
until June of 1880. All to no purpose. He set sail more
than a year before the elections, and more than six months
earlier than his political managers had wished. He felt
about this as he had about every promotion which had
come to him in the past. If the people desired him to be
President for a third term, they would make him President ;
if they did not, he was too proud and too unambitious to
work for it. There was an element of fatalism in all this.
Like Hamlet, he said : " If it be not now, then it will come ;
the readiness is all." Not one word, even to his friends
Washburne or Badeau, could be twisted into any other
significance.
Badeau has well summed up the characteristics of Gen
eral Grant as a traveler. He was undoubtedly the greatest
traveler that ever lived ; that is to say, no other man was
ever received by both peoples and sovereigns, by scholars
and merchants, by tycoons and sultans and school-children
and work-people and statesmen, as was General Grant.
With him the Pope dispensed with etiquette, and welcomed
468 LIFE OF GRANT
him as a man of no creed, who did not kneel; with him
the King of Siam formed a personal friendship ; while the
rulers of Russia, Germany, and Japan talked politics with
him. The greatest potentates on earth laid aside their
traditions and showed him courtesy. Not only the govern
ment, but the plainest people, did him honor. The multi
tudes thronging around him in Birmingham and Frankfort
and Jeddo dimly perceived that they were honoring the
democratic principle in honoring citizen Grant.
He was, however, a peculiar traveler. He liked men
and women better than scenery, great engineering works
better than cathedrals, and the common people best of all.
He loved to question the peasants concerning their life.
He did not appreciate pictures or statuary. He refused
to admire the " Marcus Aurelius " at Rome, and did not
care for the " Apollo " or the " Laocoon." He grew tired
of the Sistine Chapel, and did not care to look a second
time at the " Last Judgment " of Angelo. He would not
pretend in these matters. He took no interest in Venice,
and the towers and aisles of the great cathedral made no
marked impression upon him. The pyramids, the Alps,
the colossal things in nature, and the homely things in
human life, appealed to him. Delicate beauties were
always too small for him to grasp, and literature and art
lay outside the lines of life in which his feet were set
It was always, indeed, in human vocations that he took
the keenest interest. He had a healthy naturalness that
affiliated with plain people, though he was not offended
with princes. He did not like princes because they were
princes, but because they were men. No man enjoyed
ordinary travel, the seeing strange sights in different coun
tries, more than he, and no man ever had greater oppor
tunities. He returned to America, having seen more
faces, and having been looked upon by more human beings,
than any other man who ever lived in the world. His
mind was broadened and his character ennobled by his
experiences. It was not without justice, therefore, that
his friends at home said : " He is better fitted to be Presi
dent of the United States than any other American
citizen."
CHAPTER XLVIII
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS
GENERAL GRANT'S reception at the Golden Gate
was worthy of his great fame. When the City of
Tokio was sighted off the coast of California in September,
nearly two and a half years after General Grant had left
American soil, a single cannon-shot from the farthest point
of land announced the coming of the illustrious home-comer.
Cannon after cannon took up the welcome until the golden
glow of sunset was darkened with a widely spreading storm
of powder-smoke.
The smoke-cloud grew heavier and heavier, and the
booming of the guns grew fiercer, until it took but little
imagination to conceive the tumult to be a naval engage
ment in full fury. The city had its clamor. As soon as
the great bell on the central fire-station announced the
sighting of the ship, the throttle of every engine in town
and harbor was opened, and such a shrieking uproar began
as was never heard before on the Pacific coast.
The government steamer McPherson, with General
McDowell and staff on board, steamed out to meet the
general and his party. The City of Tokio came slowly in,
her decks crowded with passengers, and the general and
his party were at last made out to be seated directly in
front of the pilot-house.
The first person on board was the general's second son,
Ulysses. The invitation committee followed. As General
McDowell and staff crossed the bridge and approached
the pilot-house, the bystanders, with uncovered heads,
awaited the meeting of the two men who had been com
rades in arms for many years. •
469
470 LIFE OF GRANT
" How are you, Mac?" was the entirely Western salu
tation of General Grant.
He was dressed in a full suit of black broadcloth, with
black necktie and a silk hat. He was thinner than when
he left Philadelphia, but his features were elsewise little
changed. His friends observed the absence of lines of
care, and the absence, also, of the scrutinizing sternness
of glance which had characterized him when a soldier and
when President. In manner he was entirely unchanged.
He displayed the same dignity and reserve, and the same
quizzical smile was in his eyes which those who knew him
best always welcomed.
At the city wharf he was met by the mayor, who did
not intend to be outdone by the rulers of Newcastle and
Liverpool. After a brief address of welcome on his
Honor's part, General Grant made a short speech, thank
ing the mayor for the cordiality of his greeting, and
expressing his heartfelt pleasure at being once more in
California, after twenty-five years' absence.
Some of those who gave him welcome had known him
in 1854, and could not help thinking of the contrast in
volved in this return of General Grant from his trip around
the world, the most honored American who ever traveled,
a man who was placed by the English papers second only
to Washington himself. Let no man despair after study
ing the career of this indomitable soul.
It was a peculiar quality in the man that he never
avoided the places where his career had been least illus
trious. He seemed to retain a most singular affection for
Humboldt Bay and Fort Vancouver, notwithstanding their
associations with his resignation from the army and en
forced separation from his family. One of his first ex
pressions was : " I want to go to Oregon, to the old fort."
It was not all praise and joy, however. There were
opposition papers and opposition orators, and these as
serted themselves in the midst of the great chorus of joy
and admiration. They called on thoughtful men to wit
ness that " this unparalleled man-worship " led straight
toward imperialism, and that it was the duty of every
patriotic man to utter his protest against the enthronement
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 471
of Ulysses Grant. To them the whole movement was the
result of design ; it had a long-prepared and sinister
purpose ; and it was with peculiar joy that they called up
and made public every vicious and malignant attack which
was being made upon him both by the opposition Repub
licans and the Democrats. If the general was aware of
this, he gave it no thought, or, at least, no more words
than he gave to the absurd praise which orators lavished
upon him.
After some days spent in the old familiar way, receiving
great delegations of politicians, and shaking hands with
men, women, and children of every condition, the general
took boat for Portland and Vancouver, to set his feet once
more amid the scenes of his barrack life in 1853, to look
upon the fields wherein he had tried to raise potatoes at
a gain, and had harvested them at a loss. He returned a
few days later to the central part of California, visiting
Stockton, Sacramento, and other of the principal towns of
the State. In a speech before the pioneers of '49, the
general alluded to his life on the coast as a pleasant one.
He had formed many attachments for the country and the
people, he said, and he had never abandoned the hope of
making his permanent home among the people of Cali
fornia. During his seven years of life as a farmer in Mis
souri he had thought constantly of returning, but had
never been able to do so; and then in 1861, he dryly
remarked, other events had intervened.
After having visited nearly every city of importance on
the coast, the general started on his triumphal march
across the country. His movement was imperial in its
importance. In every city his reception was tumultuously
enthusiastic. At Gold Hill, at Washoe, at Carson, at Reno,
at Salt Lake, at Denver, it seemed as if the entire popula
tion came forth to look upon him, and they uttered them
selves with a fervor which more than met the expectation
of his enemies. Unquestionably, all that they feared was
coming to pass : General Grant was to be a candidate for
a third term.
His friends, however, were much concerned because he
had returned so early in the season. At the same time,
472 LIFE OF GRANT
they determined to make the most of a bad bargain, and
in Chicago, while his imperial car was sweeping across the
mountains, his comrades and friends in the East were
preparing the way for still other significant salutations.
All America was amazed at the number of his speeches.
He explained : " When I was in Europe I had to speak ;
and having done so, it seemed to me it would be very
uncivil to refuse the folks at home. It is very embarrass
ing. I think I am improving, for my knees don't knock
together as they did at first ; but I don't like it, and I am
sorry I yielded in the first place."
He talked with even great freedom, speaking in the
plainest criticism of almost any public man or public ques
tion under discussion. He spoke, in short, as one who no
longer cared whether his words were to be repeated or
not. He was not on trial now. He had the sovereign
freedom of a common citizen.
Singular and curious incidents took place all along the
line. In the mountains, one man leaped upon a barrel in
a street, as the train came to a stand, and called for three
cheers for the "best general in the world, by God!"
Another shouted : " Stand in the light, general, where we
can see you."
" But I look better in the dark," quickly replied the
general.
" We '11 make you President," was shouted again and
again ; and once a man said : " General, this is a Demo
cratic town, and I was a Confederate soldier; but I 've
nothing against you, God bless your old soul."
At a banquet, a politician over-enthusiastically said :
" General, since you came to the coast business has re
vived, money flows freely, and the people are all happier."
The general waited a moment, then quietly replied:
" I guess wheat going up thirty cents a cental has more
to do with it than I have."
While sweeping thus gloriously across the prairies, Zack
Chandler, his one-time enemy in Detroit and his faithful
friend in Washington, died. This was naturally a great
shock to the general, and those who were with him ob
served his moistened eyes and tremulous voice as he spoke
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 473
of the loyalty of his dead friend. In Zack Chandler he
also lost a devoted third- term advocate.
At Omaha the general made one of the longest of his
speeches, wherein he again voiced his patriotism and love
of his native soil, and ended by saying: "As individuals
we do not think well enough of our country." He was,
in fact, becoming almost too non-critical of American
affairs. He was dangerously near the point of compla
cently thinking that nothing more remained to do in the
way of reform.
He spoke of his future with great freedom. " I have not
been very much in Galena, but I think I shall be able to
content myself there. When I was in Japan, I went up in
the mountains and stayed ten days, almost alone. It was
a novel experience for me, but I enjoyed it. I shall not
be able to do much more than call Galena my home. It
is a good place for me to live now, for on my present
income I can live there much cheaper than in a large city,
and live better than most of my neighbors. My income
is not large enough for me to live as I would like, and I
will have to find something to do after a while.
" I have two farms near St. Louis, and some real estate
in Chicago, which if I could sell I would feel better off.
Eleven years ago I was offered fifteen hundred dollars an
acre for it, but now, after paying taxes on it all this time,
I could n't get two hundred and fifty dollars for it; but I
did better in some other investments, or I could never
have traveled abroad as long as I have."
He overflowed with good spirits, and seemed to be on
his guard against nothing except the question of his own
candidacy. The elections which were about to be held
promised Republican victory. Grant's influence seemed
to be in the air ; no one questioned at this moment his
dominancy of the public mind.
On the day after election he entered once more the
obscure little town in which his home was set. Again his
old friends and neighbors crowded to meet him ; again
triumphal arches spanned the streets, and tattered war-
flags draped the platform from which the address of
welcome was to be delivered. Washburne was there,
474 LIFE OF GRANT
and General Rowley, General Smith, General Logan,
Governor Cullom, Senator Allison, and many more whom
he had aided and who had aided him in his great career.
Senator McClellan, the man who had made the presenta
tion address in the new house, now made the address of
welcome, to which Grant replied with twitching lips and
tear-dimmed eyes.
He said it was a great pleasure to come once more to
Galena, especially after two and a half years of absence in a
foreign country. " During my travels I received princely
honors; but they were all due to this country, and to you
as citizens and sovereigns of so great a nation."
Again, when the blare of trumpets and the flutter of
flags had given place to the ordinary prosaic quiet of daily
life in Galena, the general went forth to meet his fellow-
citizens, assuming nothing more than they. The whole
city watched him to see what changes had come to him.
Said one of his old friends : " I don't see any change in
General Grant since the day he left here to go into the
army, in 1861. He may have more freedom of manner in
the presence of the public, but that comes naturally from
his association with the most prominent men of this and
other countries."
After a week of quiet life in Galena, the general moved
on to Chicago. The newspapers flamed with head-lines
of welcome, and their columns blossomed with poetical
eulogy. More than one hundred thousand people came
into the city from surrounding towns and cities. It is of
little avail attempting to describe this tremendous wel
come. It was such as no man in America had ever re
ceived. It was evident that there was in it political design
as well as genuine enthusiasm for the man.
The nominal occasion was the reunion of the Army of
the Cumberland and the Army of the Tennessee, but deep
down the politicians were working. Grant was ill at ease
in the city's meeting because of the strongly political
remarks of the mayor; but at the camp-fire of the Grand
Army reunion he was happy.
His greeting there had a quality which could not be in
any other meeting. Sherman was there, and spoke, and
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 475
so did Logan and Sheridan and Schofield. All his old
companions rallied around him once more, as in the days
of 1865 and 1868. It was noticed that the general was
more powerful in speech at the camp-fire than when
replying to the praise bestowed upon him by the mayor.
He made special effort to be heard by his comrades, and
his voice reached nearly every part of the theater.
He said it afforded him heartfelt pleasure to be again
with his old comrades in arms. " This is a non-partizan
association," he said, " but composed of men who are
united in the determination that no foe shall interpose
between us and the maintenance of our institutions and
the unity of all the States. I am proud that I am an
American citizen. Every citizen, North, South, East, and
West, enjoys a common heritage, and should feel that equal
pride in it " ; and his patriotic words had a peculiar inten
sity, to which his hearers responded heartily.
At the end of the week the general returned to Galena
to spend Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, it was evident from the press of the country
that there was a mighty stirring among the opposition
politicians. They were appalled at Grant's augmented
popularity. One of his most unrelenting enemies admitted
that Grant was never before so personally popular, and
never before so dangerous ; and not a few of the Southern
journals discussed the possibility of Grant as a candidate
of the progressive party in the South and the Liberal
Republicans in the North. Other equally absurd and
unheard-of surmises as to his action were set afloat and
discussed, while through it all the general remained, as
usual, absolutely silent.
Late in the month he returned to Chicago for a few
days, and then began his conquering march across Indiana,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania, to complete the circuit of the
world in the city of Philadelphia. It was the same old
story in every city — in Logansport, in Indianapolis, in
Columbus, in Cincinnati, one continuous blaze of bound
less enthusiasm. There was no question whatever about
the depth and the width of this admiration, and could he
have gone to election at that moment, no power on earth
4/6 LIFE OF GRANT
could have prevented him from being elected President,
with an increased majority over his former elections.
His policy was now settled, and his friends thoroughly
understood it. He said : " I will neither accept nor de
cline an imaginary thing. I shall not gratify my enemies
by declining what has not been offered me. I am not a
candidate for anything, and if the Chicago convention
nominates a candidate who can be elected, I shall be glad.
All my life I have made my decision when the time for
the decision has arrived. I shall not depart from my usual
course of action."
He left for Cuba and Mexico, therefore, without giving
any definite reply to the agonized questions of his enemies
nor the eager appeals of his friends. He did not intend
to be harassed by the coming political struggle, nor to
take part in it until such time as it was proper for him
to act.
In March, from the Mexican border, he wrote to Wash-
burne, saying:
In regard to your suggestion that I should authorize some one
to say that in no event I would consent to ever becoming a
candidate after 1880, I think any statement from me would be
misconstrued, and would only serve as a handle for my enemies.
Such a statement might well be made after the nomination, if I
am nominated in such a way as to accept. It is a matter of
supreme indifference to me whether I am or not. There are
many persons I should prefer to have the office than myself. I
owe so much to the Union men of the country that if they think
my chances are better for election than for other probable can
didates in case I should decline, I cannot decline if the nomina
tion is tendered without seeking on my part.
Mexico shows many signs of progress since I was here thirty-
two years ago. Railroads are pushing out slowly from the capi
tal, and with every advance prosperity and employment for the
poor follow. I think it should be the policy of our government
now to cultivate the strongest feelings of friendship between the
people of the two republics.
The Mexicans during his trip had recognized in him
their great and consistent friend. He was eager to do
something to make amends for the injustice of the Mexi-
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 477
can War, and every proper and consistent plan for the
advancement of Mexico had his most earnest cooperation.
He visited Vera Cruz, Puebla, Contreras, Chapultepec,
Molino del Rey, and other scenes of his youthful career
as a soldier. He had forgotten nothing. He was deeply
interested in every change, and looked up all the old
veterans who had remained behind in 1848. He promised
his aid in any good enterprise the people might undertake.
He reentered the United States early in April, and spent
several days in New Orleans, where he was received with
great interest and cordiality, being welcomed to the city
by General Silas Bussey, who said : " This demonstration
is an evidence that the sentiment which you bequeathed
to the country when you said, ' Let us have peace/ is
really upon the land."
In reply, the general said : " I am very glad to hear
that this kind reception is by your citizens, irrespective of
former relations. The scenes of war are now past. We
are a united people. If this country should unfortunately
become involved in war, we will all wear the same uniform
and fight under the same flag."
A few days later he met the legislature. The Speaker,
in introducing the general, said: "There is not to-day in
the heart of any man within the hearing of my voice any
thing but a feeling of loyal love and deep devotion for the
American Union. We can, therefore, sir, with the entire
American people, rejoice at the honors paid at your feet —
honors that stir with patriotic emotions the hearts of men."
General Grant replied : " I am delighted to hear such
generous sentiments. I have always felt that differences
between a common people after they have once been
settled should remain settled forever afterward. I am
sure that I rejoice as much as any member of this legisla
ture at anything that goes to make up the prosperity of
Louisiana and of the entire South. I believe that among
the bravest of the defenders of our Union henceforth will
be found the men before me."
A committee, with Judge Simrall as chairman, came
down from Vicksburg to extend to him a cordial invitation
to come among them and stay as long as possible.
478 LIFE OF GRANT
" I bear this invitation, general, from the people of that
battlement city whose stubborn hills and frowning guns
some years ago — aye, not so many — forbade your ingress
for many long months, and whose successful capture, after so
many attempts had failed, was the first grand achievement
which placed you before the world as the foremost warrior
in the Union army.
" Time's strong hand has been busy with our city since
then. Peace and wise laws and busy commerce have
swept from our hills all vestiges of war, and from the
hearts of our people all feelings of bitterness. Once they
disputed your entrance; now they ask you to come — to
come as their honored guest, whom they will be glad and
proud to welcome."
" I shall be glad to go to Vicksburg," the general replied,
and a slight smile crept into the fine lines about his eyes.
" I am glad to be able to go through the front door ; once,
you know, I was forced to come in through the back
door."
He visited Mobile, and later took his way up the river
to Vicksburg and Memphis ; and notwithstanding the
peculiar situation which made honor and praise of their
great visitor politically dangerous, the people of these
cities expressed themselves freely, and he as freely replied.
To all he said : " The war and the things for which we
warred are settled. We should set our faces toward the
future, a united and harmonious people"; and of course
every emphasis made by him upon this thought was taken
by his political enemies to mean that he was planning to
become the candidate of these people. As a matter of
fact, he was thinking rather of the nation's future. He
by no means evaded the negro question, but spoke as
plainly as was his wont, saying, " The negro is here, and
is here to stay, and his rights must be maintained," though
he admitted that time was required for this problem to
work itself out.
Neither did he evade the society of the colored men,
but met them heartily. He gave up one entire day to
them in New Orleans. He said to a gathering of them :
" I am pleased to see such evidence of the progress of the
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 479
race as you have shown me to-day. The chief security
for the future of your people lies in popular education. I
hope," he said further, " that the colored man will be al
lowed the privilege of going where he pleases, but I wish
he may be so treated that he will be pleased to remain
where he is."
He seemed to be making a study of the condition of
the colored people, and perhaps no other man could have
gone among them in such wise without giving offense to
the white people who were entertaining him almost simul
taneously. It was recognized that Grant was too large in
fame for such action to do him harm.
At Vicksburg the address of welcome was delivered by
Colonel McCardle, a Confederate officer. He extended,
on behalf of all the people of Vicksburg, a warm and
cordial welcome. " When I say all our people, sir, I
mean it, without regard to race or color, political predi
lection or religious creed. There was a time when your
presence here was less welcome than it is to-day. You
were then, with a large retinue of your friends, anxious
to make a visit to this city, and those of us who were then
present were equally anxious that you should forego that
pleasure. For forty-seven weary days and nights, be
neath a pitiless storm of shot and shell, we sought to avoid
having you with us; but your attentions were so press
ing and persistent that we finally concluded to receive
you."
After the laughter and applause had subsided, the tactful
orator proceeded : " And now, sir, nearly seventeen years
after the first visit, it affords me pleasure to say that your
treatment of the garrison surrendered to you on the fourth
day of July, 1863, was kind, considerate, and generous.
In your deportment, and in that of the officers and men
who accompanied you, there was nothing unworthy of the
character of the American soldier.
"How different is the scene to-day! Hostile vessels
no longer ride upon our waters, and our green declivities
echo no longer with the clash of steel, the rattle of mus
ketry, and the thunder of artillery. All is peace, calm, and
quiet. Some of those who looked upon you with sad
480 LIFE OF GRANT
hearts and swimming eyes as you rode through our streets
that bright July morning are here to-day to give you
welcome as the distinguished American soldier and only
living ex-President of the United States.
" We cannot offer you, sir, such a pageant as has greeted
you, like the drum-beat of old England, all around the
world; but in its stead we extend to you a cordial greet
ing, and bid you welcome to our home.
" We concur, sir, in the hope recently expressed by
you in New Orleans, that the wearers of the blue and gray
may never again be arrayed against each other. We
desire that in any future war the men of the North and
the men of the South shall be found rallying around the
same flag."
After this most suave and tasteful oration, the Hon.
Mr. Carter read an address on behalf of the colored citi
zens, which was a tribute to the great soldier for accom
plishing their liberation ; and when the general, who had
listened to both addresses, rose and stood with uncovered
head, a hush so profound that it became thrilling fell upon
the throng.
He began by expressing the pleasure he felt at this re
ception, and confessed to a feeling of great satisfaction upon
his safe arrival in Vicksburg at the time the gentleman
referred to. " I am glad that the conflict is over, and that
it left us united. I know that nothing can again array the
blue against the gray."
All that day the people crowded to see him, and when,
at seven o'clock, he started for Memphis, never again to
visit the scenes of his great siege, he turned a bright page
in the history of the city and of the South. It was of
the highest significance that the man who had once been
the daily terror and the dread conqueror of a city should
become its honored guest within fifteen years after the
close of the war in which the two sections had been en
gaged. Mankind is slowly civilizing.
At Memphis it was the same thing repeated. Another
mass of struggling people was eager to come within sight
of him. The streets were thronged, the buildings gay
with bunting, and the windows and balconies filled with
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 481
smiling faces. If there were those who hated him, they
were not in evidence. The general bowed and smiled to
all, seemingly as pleased to see the people as the people
were to see him. At Cairo, which was the gateway to
the South, the general appeared to turn and glance back
over his trail with profound pleasure. He had been deeply
touched by his reception in these Southern cities, and to
all the North he proclaimed the South to be at peace, and
eager for a future in which strife should have no part.
Without doubt he was moved by a sincere belief in the
truth of his utterance, no matter what his political oppo
nents might say or think.
Meanwhile, as he was on his way from Cairo to Chicago,
a great meeting of Grant adherents openly and with great
power initiated the third-term boom by an immense meet
ing in Chicago. Up to this time nothing formal had been
done in the way of presenting his name. This meeting
proclaimed to the world that General Grant would accept
the nomination if it came in a right way.
Without alluding to the meeting, the general went his
way to his home in Galena, and there quietly remained
until the convention. He did nothing either for or against
his nomination. It was understood, however, that he was
in the hands of his friends, and there were those who
claimed that he was exceedingly anxious to receive the
nomination. The truth seems to be that he was moved
in the matter more out of consideration for his family than
for himself. He was comparatively indifferent, but Mrs.
Grant and his son were eager to see him again in power.
Without doubt he considered himself better fitted to be
President than ever before in his life. Whatever argument
had been valid against a third term four years before could
scarcely count after an interregnum of four years, and he
saw no reason why he should not become with perfect
propriety a candidate for a third term.
The temptation, also, was great because he was in need
of money. General Sherman, in a letter some time before
the convention, said : " Grant does not care to be Presi
dent again. He wants employment; he wants to make
money."
482 LIFE OF GRANT
Whatever may have been the motive which influenced
him, he certainly allowed every step to be taken in the
design to nominate him. There were friends who said he
could not be elected, if nominated ; but this was disputed
by others. The struggle, they knew, would be in the con
vention, and not in the country at large. The battle was
to be between Grant, Blaine, and Sherman, with Elaine as
the more formidable antagonist. As the convention day
drew near, the fight became so definite in outline that
experts were able to name almost the exact number of
ballots which each candidate would command at the open
ing of the roll-call of States.
To those most sensitive there was a distinct element of
pathos in the fact that General Grant, who had carried
two conventions absolutely without opposition, should
now, in his old age and at the very zenith of his fame,
enter upon a bitter and almost hopeless struggle. Doubtless
before he absolutely consented that his name should go
before the convention he took into account that nearly
three hundred delegates were pledged to his support.
He would thus enter the convention with more votes than
any other candidate, and it seemed impossible that he
should not be nominated on the second ballot.
The convention was long in getting under way. The
delegates foresaw a stern contest, and throughout all the
preliminaries the leaders skirmished for position. Every
step was an attempt to secure advantage.
During these days of preparation the general continued
to live quietly at his home in Galena. He did not take
the trouble to have a private wire extended to his house.
Each day he came down-town a little while in the fore
noon, and then again strolled down in the afternoon.
Occasionally he was seen in the evening. He betrayed
no excitement whatever ; seemingly he was neither anxious
nor alarmed. He made his headquarters usually in the
law office of Rowley, his old staff- officer. He was in
Rowley's office the evening his name was presented to
the convention.
His son Ulysses was with him, also. Fearing his father
was about to be defeated, and fearing also that he might
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 483
be bitterly disappointed, young Grant came on from New
York City to be with him during this time of strenuous
excitement.
At last a bulletin came. Conkling had risen, and had
presented the general's name before the convention in the
following words : " And when they ask whence comes our
candidate, we say, From Appomattox and its apple-tree."
The applause had interrupted him, and had continued for
several minutes.
The faithful presentation of his name had been made,
but the general betrayed no excitement, scarcely interest.
A thoughtful look was on his face.
A few moments later a second bulletin was read : " The
applause continues." And then another : " The applause is
beginning again. All order is lost; the hall is one surging
mass of shouting humanity. It has gone far beyond any
other demonstration."
While his friends leaped to their feet with the thrill of
excitement caught from the great electrical storm in the
convention-hall, shouting exultantly, " General, that settles
it; you will be nominated on the first ballot," the general
moved uneasily in his chair, and his face darkened a little.
Either from modesty or a natural dislike of applause, he
made up his mind to go home.
He rose abruptly, saying to his son : " Come, Buck, let 's
go home " ; and together the father and son stepped out
into the street, and walked for some time in silence. At
length the general drew a deep sigh, as though about to
reassume a burden almost too great for his strength, and
said in a low voice, with a touch of sadness in its falling
cadence: " I am afraid I am going to be nominated."
When the son heard his father say that, his mind was
instantly relieved. He saw that defeat could not crush
the general, nor victory exalt him. He left immediately
for his Eastern home.
During the days following the general spent a great
deal of his time at Rowley's office, listening to the bulle
tins with unmoved countenance. He was there when the
first ballot was taken, giving him three hundred and four
votes against Elaine with two hundred and eighty-four.
484 LIFE OF GRANT
Perhaps this was a disappointment; perhaps he, too, had
expected to be nominated on the first ballot. As these
three hundred and four men voted again and again and
again, he came to have a keen admiration of their courage.
The vote soon showed that the fight was to be one of the
bitterest ever seen in American history.
At last a telegram came to him from Senator Conkling,
which announced, in substance: ''The Shermen men say
that they will support you if you will promise to put Sher
man in the cabinet."
Instantly the old general became granite and iron. He
replied : " I will not consent to any agreement in order to
secure the nomination for President of the United States."
Right there he ended his public career. He was willing
to accept the nomination if it came to him spontaneously
from the people, — in fact, he considered it his duty to
accept under such circumstances, — but he would not make
a bargain, not even for this high prize. The Sherman
men went away and made a deal elsewhere.
At the end of the twenty-eighth ballot the Old Guard
of three hundred and four Grant men had secured three
additional votes. Nothing like the splendid constancy of
these men had ever been known in politics. They could
not be scared, nor bought, nor wheedled, nor deceived.
They were for Grant first, last, and all the time. And on
the final ballot, which gave to James A. Garfield three
hundred and ninety-nine ballots, the Grant men stood with
unbroken ranks and with two additional votes. They
were defeated, but not dismayed. They stood throughout
the battle like the Old Guard at Waterloo. They passed
into history three hundred and six supporters of the great
general, and will forever be known as the Old Guard.
When the final vote was announced to General Grant
by his friend Rowley, he brushed the ashes from his cigar,
and said : " Garfield is a good man. I am glad of it.
Good night, gentlemen." He rose quietly, and walked
out without another word. By that ballot it was settled
forever that General Grant must spend the remaining years
of his life as a private citizen.
To his intimate friends, however, he complained a little,
THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 485
" My friends have not been honest with me. I can't
afford to be defeated. They should not have placed me
in nomination unless they felt perfectly sure of my suc
cess." This was the only complaint he ever made, and
he did not dwell upon that.
To show his good will, and to insure, if possible, the
success of the Republican party, he got out into the field
and did what he had never before consented to do: he
made political speeches. He spared no effort to bring the
leaders of his own campaign to indorse and to elect Gen
eral Garfield, and it was largely due to his power, to his
great influence actually exerted, that the Republicans were
able to win a victory so complete as to be beyond all ques
tion. There was no dispute over Garfield's election.
As the general had said so often in his letters to Wash-
burne and to Badeau, he could not afford to live longer
without employment, and his income was too small to
warrant a living in New York unless he secured some dig
nified and profitable position. His family urged his re
moval to New York, feeling sure that something would
turn up to help him make a living. He purchased a house
on East Sixty-sixth Street, and this became his permanent
home.
CHAPTER XLIX
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE
THE position in which General Grant found himself
after the election of Garfield was one difficult to sus
tain. He was a man holding higher honors than any
other American who had ever lived, and yet he was not
fitted to earn the living which his position demanded.
He had no business training. He was not even economi
cal. He could not save the small income which he had.
He was accustomed to doing things in a large way. His
life had been one of enormous activity and responsibility,
and it was impossible for him to retire to the quiet and
humdrum life of a farmer in St. Louis or Galena. Even
if he had been willing to do this, his family urged other
things.
His sons were all engaged in enterprises which de
manded city life. His son Frederick had married a
woman accustomed to the life of a city ; his second son,
Ulysses, had married the daughter of Senator Chaffee of
Colorado ; and his son Jesse had married the daughter of
Senator Flood of California. They were all ambitious to
succeed in business, and had determined to settle in New
York City. It was inevitable, therefore, that the general
himself should go to the great metropolis with his children,
though at the time his friends argued against it, and some
of them predicted demoralization.
The general was eager to earn money. Money had
always had a singular fascination for him. He had sought
the society of rich men. They appealed to his imagination.
They could do the things which he could not. And,
with the perversity of genius, he wished to prove that he
486
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 487
was something more than a mere soldier — that he could
make a living ; and, above all, he was eager to provide the
luxury which his wife had become accustomed to, and
which he delighted to see her enjoy. Nothing else re
mained for him to do now.
For all these reasons he did what his sincerest friends
wished him not to do. He entered Wall Street. The
circumstances under which this took place were very
curious. To tell the story of General Grant's venture in
New York City is to tell the story of one of the most re
markable periods of inflation and boom the country has
ever known, and to outline one of the most singular char
acters that ever rose from the deeps of that tumult of
speculation which the whole nation has in mind when it
hears the words " Wall Street."
Some time about the year 1877 a slim young man with
a pale and meager face applied to the superintendent of
the New York Produce Exchange for a position. He
based his application upon the fact that the superinten
dent had known his father in an interior town years before.
The superintendent recalled the young man as the son
of an excellent father, a returned missionary, and, being
well disposed toward him, secured for him the clerkship
of the exchange, at a salary of $1000 a year. The super
intendent was Mr. S. H. Grant, and the young clerk was
Ferdinand Ward. Mr. S. H. Grant was not related in any
degree to General Grant.
Ward filled his position acceptably, and had time to
figure in various speculative opportunities besides. At that
time seats in the exchange were rated low, and seeing an
upward tendency in business, young Ward began buying
these seats as fast as he was able to raise the money, and
selling them at a profit. He went into a number of specu
lations, all of which turned out to be profitable. He be
came acquainted with the daughter of the cashier of the
Marine National Bank, and wooed and married her. He
made acquaintances rapidly, and turned casual associations
into friendships, one of the most valuable of his friend
ships being with Mr. J. D. Fish, president of the Marine
National Bank.
488 LIFE OF GRANT
Thus, in one way and another, Ferdinand Ward won
a reputation as a bright young business man of most ex
cellent connections. Some time in 1879 he met, through
his brother William, Ulysses Grant, the second son of
General Grant, who had established himself with a law
firm in New York City. Young Grant had charge of
General Grant's property, of two trust estates, and also of
other funds. Young Ward at once asked him to go into
some speculations with him, and set forth the safety of an
investment in flour certificates, which his position as clerk
of the exchange gave him special insight into. Young
Grant allowed Ward to use some money in this way, and
the venture proved successful. Ward then interested him
in the scheme of buying seats in the Produce Exchange,
and holding them against the coming boom. This, too,
was successful. Everything he touched turned to gold.
It was a time of inflation. Land was rising. Railways
were opening up new territory in the West and South.
The " bull " side of the market was the winning side, and
Ward was naturally a bull. He took all risks, and, as the
times favored, every venture seemed to win. He was on
the inside of every new scheme which the street developed,
and young Grant found his bank-account growing with
gratifying rapidity. He was not yet a formal partner,
however, the speculations thus far being merely as a
friendly association for the individual enterprises in hand.
The time came when Ward owed his partner, on borrowed
money and ostensible profits, nearly $100,000. At this
point he proposed that a private banking firm be organ
ized to do a regular Wall Street business, in which he was
to be financial agent. In this firm J. D. Fish and General
Grant were to be silent partners. Young Grant at first
declined, but upon the urging of Ward, and the assurance
that Mr. Fish was coming in, finally consented.
In 1880, when General Grant first met him, Ward was
regarded as the most brilliant young business man on the
street. His office was the meeting-place of the most
trusted and influential men of affairs, and his standing was
of the highest. Every venture he had commended had
succeeded, and General Grant would have been a singular
U. S. Grant when he took up his residence in New York, age 59 years.
From a photograph by W. Kurtz.
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 489
exception had he refused to go further with such a finan
cier, especially as the president of the Marine Bank was to
be a special partner in the firm.
The firm of Grant & Ward at once took high rank.
Bradstreet rated it " gilt-edged," and its credit was un
questioned. When, in 1880, General Grant had been
defeated for a third nomination to the Presidency, the
question of engaging in some business arose. He could
not be idle. He was done with politics, and he was not
fitted for any profession. He had refused the presidency
of the Nicaraguan Canal, but had accepted the presidency
of the Mexican Southern Railway, on the understanding
that he was not to receive any salary or any stock. He
had plenty of opportunities to allow the use of his name,
but his deep interest in Mexico, which sprang from his
early life there, was more powerful than any offer of
money. He at once put all his savings (about $100,000)
into the firm of Grant & Ward, on condition that he was
to be a special partner, liable only for the money he put
in. He was willing to go into a business as clean and
secure as that of Grant & Ward seemed to be. Soon
after this a fund was raised for him by some New York
citizens, and invested in Wabash bonds, upon which he
realized about $15,000 a year, and from the rents of his
houses he received enough to bring his income up to
about $25,000 a year, which was not a large amount for
a man of his world-wide reputation.
His office as president of the Mexican railroad was in
a building on the corner of Wall Street and Broadway,
the first floor of which was occupied by Grant & Ward.
The firm was now composed of Ferdinand Ward, J. D.
Fish, General Grant, and his son Ulysses. Ward was
the financial agent and sole manager. The general had
no detailed knowledge of the business, and asked for none.
He left the whole matter to his son Ulysses, who, in turn,
trusted Ward with the entire financial management.
Thus Ward had complete control ; but as offset to this,
he said he was willing to guarantee the firm against loss.
So phenomenally successful did he prove, both in the firm
of Grant & Ward and also in his outside speculations,
490 LIFE OF GRANT
that great business firms trusted themselves as completely
in his hands as did the Grants. J. D. Fish backed him
to any amount; and Mr. S. H. Grant, the city controller,
and Mr. Tappan, city chamberlain, and Mr. W. R. Grace,
Mr. W. S. Warner, Senator Chaffee, and many others were
equally trustful. In addition to its fine credit, the firm
started with a paid-in capital of $400,000.*
It was a time of " boom " : that should be remembered.
Speculation was universal. Fortunes were made in a day,
— almost in an hour, — and men were prepared to believe
any sort of romance which concerned itself with railways
or buildings. The way was prepared for a man like Ward,
who had an uncanny power over men. His words were
golden, and his daily life a fairy-tale of speculation. He
captivated and controlled almost every man he met. He
played upon the universal and very human love of quick
gains, and he found his investors among the leading firms
of lower New York City. Wall Street, and not the coun
try village, was his field. He disdained small gains and
narrow fields. He talked in millions. He paid enormous
dividends to his investors, who trusted him in outside
speculations, and large and regular profits arose out of the
Wall Street business. He became the " young Napoleon
of finance."
At Ward's suggestion, Ulysses, Jr., early in the deal,
offered to pay to General Grant $3000 per month for the
use of his money, but gave him the option of leaving it in
the business if he wished. To this the general replied:
" I don't think I can afford to do that. If you don't make
that much, I don't want you to make up the deficit; and
if you make more, it is rightfully mine. I would rather
you paid me what my money brings in, be it a small sum
or a large one." Ward's method was not to advertise
much — " merely to let a few friends know " that the firm
was doing an exceedingly profitable business by lending
money to men who had contracts. He was careful to
say to General Grant and his sons that the firm was
not handling any contracts with the government, and
* As was afterward developed, the Grants furnished the cash, and the
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 491
warned Mr. Spencer, his cashier, to be careful about
that also.
The regular transactions of the firm, and the only ones
appearing in the books to which the Grants had access,
were of a different nature, like loaning money to the Erie
Railway, purchases of city bonds, and other equally safe
and stable investments. These loans gave tone to the
firm, and inspired confidence. " It is my plan," said
Ward, " to build up a great firm that shall live after Grant
& Ward, its founders, have passed away."
Ward was a man of most exemplary life. He lived
well, but quietly, and had no bad habits. He seemed a
thoughtful man, and his peculiarities distinguished him as
a man born with a special genius for great financial enter
prises. He seemed to be capable of the most colossal
affairs, and men of the highest business qualifications
shared in this belief. In these days it would be said that
his influence was hypnotic.
In this fashion the firm swam prosperously on. U. S.
Grant, Jr., received occasional statements from Ward,
which he laid before his father. These papers the gen
eral returned without examination, for he had arrived at
unquestioning faith in his son's business ability. Profits
had been large. The firm, from operations in stocks,
bonds, and railway contracts, soon had a bank-account of
nearly a million dollars, and handled vast sums of money.
Senator Chaffee had invested $400,000 in the business,
and there were innumerable small investors. From a
capital of $400,000, the firm, in a little more than three
years, was rated at fifteen millions. Ferdinand Ward, in
his own fashion, outside the firm of Grant & Ward, had
entered upon the most gigantic enterprises, apparently
with unfailing success. Of these outside ventures the
Grants knew nothing. Ulysses Grant, Jr., had access only
to the one set of books wherein the Wall Street business
was recorded. He knew scarcely a tenth of the investors.
He did not know that his own law partners were interested
in Ward's affairs. The record of the huge debts of the
firm was in books kept secret by Ward and Fish.
One Sunday afternoon in early May, 1 884, Ward called
492 LIFE OF GRANT
at General Grant's house, and asked to see both the gen
eral and young Ulysses. He announced that late on
Saturday, Mr. Tappan, the city chamberlain, had drawn
on the Marine Bank for a very large sum which the bank
held on deposit for the city, and that the reserves were
perilously low. " It is necessary," said he, " to put some
money in before the clearing-house opens to-morrow
morning, in order that the bank may make a proper
showing."
To this young Grant very naturally replied : " Why
should we borrow money to aid the Marine Bank? "
Ward for a moment seemed puzzled, but answered, after
a moment's hesitation : " We have $660,000 on deposit
there, and it would embarrass us very much if the bank
should close its doors."
" They are good for it, are they not? "
" Oh, yes ; but there would be delay before we could
get our money, and it might give us trouble."
Having convinced them both of the need of aiding the
bank, Ward at last proposed that General Grant go out
and borrow $150,000. Young Grant said that it was not
easy to raise such a sum on Sunday afternoon, and to this
Ward replied : " I know that ; but I know the general can
borrow it, if anybody can."
The general at length consented to go forth in aid of
the Marine Bank. After calling upon one or two men
who declared themselves unable to help him, he drove to
the house of W. K. Vanderbilt, and explained the matter
to Mr. Vanderbilt at length. It was not for himself, but
for the Marine Bank, he said, in conclusion.
Mr. Vanderbilt took young Grant's view of it. " I care
nothing about the Marine Bank, General Grant. To tell
the truth, I care very little about Grant & Ward. But
to accommodate you personally, I will draw my check for
the amount you ask. I consider it a personal loan to you,
and not to any other party," he said pointedly.
General Grant took the check, and returned to Ward,
who was waiting. Ward thanked him, and putting the
check in his pocket, left the house. The next morning,
before the banks opened, young Grant called for a check
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 493
drawn on the Marine Bank for the full amount, and hurried
with it up to Vanderbilt's house, eager to pay the debt at
the earliest moment. He found Mr. Vanderbilt at home,
and delivered the check into his hands. Both men con
sidered the debt paid and the whole transaction closed.
Monday saw everything righted. There was no further
trouble, and the Grants dismissed the incident from their
minds. Once, late in the afternoon, as Ward passed
through the room, Ulysses Grant, Jr., asked: "Every
thing all right?" and Ward replied cheerily: "All right
now." But that night, after dinner, a messenger came to
young Grant from Ward, saying that Tappan had drawn
again, and that it would be necessary to borrow $500,000.
" I '11 try for $250,000, and you do the same."
Mr. Grant was a little irritated at the demand, and for a
moment thought of making no further attempt to help the
Marine Bank out of its distress. However, after thought,
he concluded to make the attempt, and taking a list of
negotiable securities which Ward had sent by the mes
senger, he went to Jay Gould, and presented the matter.
Mr. Gould curtly replied : " I don't like lending on
those securities " ; and young Grant concluded to do no
more borrowing for the Marine Bank. He went to S. B.
Elkins, however, and explained the situation. Mr. Elkins,
who was Senator Chaffee's attorney, seemed a little bit
puzzled over the case. " I don't understand this. Sup
pose we go over to Brooklyn and see Ward."
Ward was out, but they decided to wait for him, although
it was nearly midnight. The servants were directed by
Mrs. Ward to set out some cake and wine, and the two
men remained seated in the dining-room till after midnight,
waiting, with growing anxiety, for Ward. It was well
toward one in the morning when Ward suddenly and
noiselessly entered by a side door. He was calm and
very self-contained. He explained his absence by saying
he had been to see some capitalists. He said he had not
been able to raise any money, but did not seem specially
disappointed at his own or his partner's failure to borrow
the sums needed. All agreed that the Marine Bank
must needs take care of itself.
494 LIFE OF GRANT
Mr. Elkins, however, as attorney for Senator Chaffee,
who was one of the largest investors in the Grant &
Ward business, demanded, on his client's behalf, to be
secured. Ward said, "Very well," but added: "I don't
see the need, when Senator Chaffee can have his money
at any time on demand."
Mr. Elkins insisted, and Ward promised to be at the
office early the next morning to turn over sufficient secu
rities to cover the whole amount of the senator's invest
ment. Upon this, young Grant and Elkins took their
departure; but all the way across the city Elkins dis
cussed Ward's manner. " The whole thing is suspicious.
Did you observe he had his slippers on? He was in the
house all the time, and was afraid to come down and see
us. Why should he enter at the side door? "
Grant stoutly thrust aside these suspicions ; his faith was
unshaken. Early the next morning Mr. Elkins and young
Ulysses hastened to the office. Ward was not there.
" Where is Ward ? " asked Grant of Spencer, the cashier.
" I don't know," replied Spencer. " I came by the house
this morning, and when I rang the bell, Mrs. Ward came
down, much excited, and said Ferdinand had gone out
early, leaving a note to the effect that the bank would fail
that day, and that he would not be home. She seemed
afraid that he was about to commit suicide, and wanted
me to go and look for him."
Colonel Fred Grant came out of an inner office at this
moment, and said that Mr. Fish had been in, much excited,
to say that the Grant & Ward accounts were all over
drawn, and that he would not certify or pay any more of
the firm's checks.
Young Ulysses was amazed. " That can't be," he said.
" We have over $600,000 on deposit there. Is not that
the sum, Mr. Spencer?"
The cashier brought the book ; $660,000 was the exact
amount.
Young Grant went on : " It is impossible that our
account is overdrawn. Ward's account may be, but the
firm's cash is, according to Spencer's books, $660,000."
" Make test of it," said Mr. Elkins. " Draw a check
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 495
for cash, and send one of your people over to the bank.
Let him find out the balance of Grant & Ward's account,
and also Ward's personal account."
This was done, and in a short time the messenger re
turned to say that the officers of the bank, by order of Mr.
Fish, refused to pay the check, and stated that they could
not honor any more Grant & Ward checks.
This was startling news, but even then young Grant
did not realize its full import. He knew of but one inter
est that was suffering at this time — that of Mr. Chaffee ;
and when Mr. Elkins insisted on being secured, there was
but one thing to do : to carry out Ward's promise of the
night before, and open the strong box, in which millions
of securities had been deposited. Ward held the key of
this box, but the moment demanded heroic measures.
The box was forced open, and found to contain only
papers of doubtful value, amounting, even on their face, to
less than $400,000.
While the others still stood aghast at this discovery,
Spencer, who had been listening at a ticker, announced
in fateful voice : " The Marine Bank has closed its doors."
With profound conviction in his face, he turned to young
Grant. " This carries Grant & Ward down also."
" I don't see that," replied Grant. " The loss of $600,-
ooo will cramp us, but it won't break us."
He was soon undeceived. Instead of being worth
$15,000,000, with an enormous bank-account, he and his
friends found themselves without a dollar, and with a flood
of demands pouring in upon them. Ruin to all the Grants
he now saw coming swiftly. Not merely this, but excited
investors clamored to be secured. They claimed that they
had gone into the speculation because of General Grant's
influence in getting government contracts.
Just when matters were at the worst, General Grant
hobbled slowly into the room. He was still disabled
from a fall on the ice some months preceding, and used
his crutches. "Well, Buck, how is it?" he cheerily
asked.
The son, his head still ringing with the blow which had
fallen upon him, replied harshly, and without any soften-
4Q6 LIFE OF GRANT
ing words : " Grant & Ward have failed, and Ward has
fled."
For a few seconds the old warrior faced the people of
the office, his keen eyes piercing to the bottom of his son's
anger and despair. Then he turned slowly, and without
the quiver of a muscle, and without a single word, left the
room and ascended slowly to his own office, to be seen no
more in the office of Grant & Ward. About five o'clock
in the afternoon, however, he sent for Spencer, the cashier,
to come up and see him. As the young man entered the
room, he found the general seated close to his desk, both
hands convulsively clasping the arms of his chair. His
head was bowed, and the muscles of his face and arms
twitched nervously as he said:
" Spencer, how is it that man has deceived us all in this
way?"
Even as Spencer tried to speak, the general did not
look up ; in fact, the young man's stammering attempt to
answer seemed not to interrupt the current of the gen
eral's thought. He went on speaking:
" I had not the least idea that Ward was concerned in
government contracts. I told him at the beginning that
I could not be connected with the firm if he was going
into any business with the government. I told him that,
while contracts with the government were proper, it was
not proper that I, after being President, should be con
cerned in any way in such business. I supposed the con
tracts he spoke of were railway contracts, that he loaned
to subcontractors, thus enabling them to finish their sec
tion, and that they were willing to pay large interest for
such accommodation."
He went on for several minutes with an explanation, to
which Spencer made no reply. He was evidently suffer
ing the keenest mental anguish from the charges made
against his honor, and the cashier would gladly have
uttered some word of comfort, but was himself too deeply
moved and bewildered to do so. Finding Spencer as
ignorant of it all as the rest of them, the general became
silent, and the young man withdrew, leaving him seated,
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 497
with bowed head, in the same position in which he had
found him.
That day was long and tedious, so little could be known.
Without Ward, it was impossible to tell what the firm
owned or what it owed. Claims developed of which U. S.
Grant, Jr., had no knowledge, and which did not appear
on the open books of the firm. The excitement on the
street was very great. Investors with whom the Grants
had no dealings whatever clamored to be secured. Great
pressure was brought upon young Grant to make an as
signment in favor of certain creditors ; but he refused. So
the day wore on. At the end it was apparent that Grant
& Ward were hopelessly involved, and that every dollar
possessed by General Grant was swept away.
On Wednesday, U. S. Grant, Jr., went down to the
office, but Ward did not turn up. The papers had im
mense head-lines, and all sorts of charges and insinuations
were in type. Creditors called, saying that the bonds
given to them for security by Ward had been rehypothe
cated. Some of these men covertly threatened young
Ulysses. He manfully replied : " I presume what you say
is true. I know nothing about it. I can't do anything
about it. All I can say is, you '11 find me here during
business hours, and at my house thereafter." He was
ready to answer to any call.
The entire family was in singular straits. Every cent
of ready money was gone, and many bills for which
checks had been given weeks before to butchers and
bakers, but which the holders had neglected to cash, came
up now a second time for payment. The general and
Ulysses, Jr., found themselves actually in need of money
for daily necessities. Mrs. Grant ordered her Washing
ton house to be sold, and that formed the fund upon
which the entire family lived. They sold horses and
carriages, and prepared to move into cheaper houses.
Young Ulysses still refused to make any assignment or
prefer any creditors.
The general was visited on Thursday night by repre
sentatives of Mr. Vanderbilt, who wished to be secured
498 LIFE OF GRANT
upon his loan of the Sunday preceding. He looked to
General Grant for his money.
" You 're quite right," said the general. " It was an
individual loan, and I am having papers drawn up to
secure Mr. Vanderbilt so far as possible."
General Grant now cast about to see how he could pay
this individual debt, which he regarded as an affair of
honor. He deeded to Vanderbilt the farm on the Gravois,
near St. Louis, which was worth $60,000, a house in
Philadelphia, some property in Chicago, and all his per
sonal property. In order to bring the sum up to the full
amount, the old warrior turned over all his personal trophies
— all the swords presented to him by citizens and soldiers,
the superb caskets given to him by the officials of the
cities through which he had passed on his way around the
world, all the curious and exquisite souvenirs of China and
Japan. He spared nothing. He fought the battle clear
through as grimly as he had pushed Vicksburg to a finish.
He stripped himself to the bare furnishings of his house.
He considered himself no more liable for the debts of
Grant & Ward than any other investor; but the debt to
Mr. Vanderbilt weighed on his mind, and he could not
rest until it was paid.
Many of the papers criticized General Grant freely for
going into the firm. Some of them covertly exulted, and
insinuated that he was attempting to draw out of the
wreck, retaining his immense profits. These things cut
deep into the proud old warrior's heart ; but, as his habit
was, he set his lips in a grim line, and was silent, so far
as the outside world was concerned. Once, however, he
opened his heart to a friend. Late one night, after he had
signed away all he possessed to his creditors, he sat alone
with his lawyer. As he went all over the action, and
thought of Ward's cunning in securing that final check,
his emotion became visible in an unusual restlessness of
eye and limb. At last he rose on his crutches, and began
hobbling up and down the room. When he spoke at last,
it was in semi-soliloquy, as though he had almost forgotten
the presence of his friend :
" I have made it the rule of my life to trust a man long
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 499
after other people gave him up ; but I don't see how I can
ever trust any human being again."
The worst was yet to come. A letter was given to the
public press by Fish, the president of the failed bank,
which apparently connected Grant directly with the
methods of Ward. To save himself from condemnation,
Fish now claimed to have been a victim, asserting that
two years before he had written to General Grant, asking
to be assured about the firm. In this letter, after speak
ing in a general way of the fact that he saw very little of
General Grant, and suggesting that it was advisable to
consult together, Mr. Fish went on to say :
I have often been asked by friends and business men whether
you and I were general or special partners. We were for a while
advertised as special partners, but I think we are virtually and
actually general partners. I think legally we would find that to
be our status.
He then spoke of a note inclosed from the president of
the Lincoln National Bank, and continued :
You may be aware that I am on the notes of Grant & Ward
as an endorser, which I have discounted myself, and have had
to get negotiated to the extent of some $200,000 in the aggregate
at the same and at one time, which is not a trifling amount to
me. It is necessary that the credit of Grant & Ward should
deservedly stand very high. These notes, as I understand it, are
given for no other purpose than to raise money for the payment
for grain, etc., purchased to fill government contracts. Under
the circumstances, my dear general, you will see that it is of most
vital importance to me particularly that the credit of the firm
shall always be untarnished and unimpaired. I will be most
happy to meet at almost any time you may name, to talk these
matters over. Please return me President James's letter at your
convenience, with any suggestions you may have to make.
The answer to this letter, as put forth by Fish, was in
dubitably in the handwriting of General Grant. It was a
more or less complete answer to the letter above.
Mv DEAR MR. FISH : On my arrival in the city this morning,
I find your letter of yesterday, with a letter from Thomas L. James,
500 LIFE OF GRANT
president of Lincoln National Bank, and copy of your reply to
the letter. Your understanding in regard to our liabilities in the
firm of Grant & Ward are the same as mine. If you desire it,
I am entirely willing that the advertisement of the firm shall be
so changed as to express this. Not having been in the city for
more than a week, I have found a large accumulated mail to
look over, and some business appointments to meet, so that I
may not be able to get down to see you to-day ; but if I can, I
will go there before three o'clock. Very truly yours,
U. S. GRANT.
There was also put out a second answer to this letter,
more valuable as a defense to Messrs. Ward and Fish than
the other:
MY DEAR MR. FISH : In relation to the matter of discounts
kindly made by you for account of Grant & Ward, I would
say that I think the investments are safe, and I am willing that
Mr. Ward should derive what profit he can for the firm that the
use of my name and influence may bring.
This was signed apparently in General Grant's own
hand, and upon it the detractors of Grant fell with joy.
It was photolithographed, and sent throughout the coun
try. The signature was to all appearance genuine; the
body of the letter was written in another hand. Action
had already begun against Fish, and this letter became
important evidence. When the trial came on, the testi
mony of General Grant was demanded. He was unable
to leave his room, and the counsel for Fish went to the
attorney for the Grants, and expressed the deepest regret
that the trial should come up at a time when the general
was so ill, and suggested its postponement. But Grant's
attorney, knowing well the temper of the general, said :
" No ; let the trial go on. General Grant is ready to
testify."
General Grant's deposition was taken in a room of
his house on Sixty-sixth Street. He stated that he had
considered himself merely a special partner in the business
of Grant & Ward, liable only for his investment. He
did not remember to have seen Mr. Fish's letter. He did
not know that any government contracts were handled,
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 501
and he had no knowledge that his name was being used
to induce others to invest in doubtful speculations. When
the alleged letter to Fish was placed before him, he
examined the signature closely, and said that it was un
doubtedly of his own writing, but that he had no know
ledge of the letter itself. He added that in the course of
a long executive life he had become accustomed to affix
his signature to many papers without reading them, it
being impossible to personally examine everything which
was put before him to sign.
The trial developed that the letter was written, at Ward's
request, by Spencer, the cashier. Spencer remembered
the letter perfectly, for the reason that Ward brought the
rough draft of it to him on a pad, one morning in the
midsummer of 1882. It had many corrections and inter
lineations for so short a letter, and that fact aided to fix
the matter in Mr. Spencer's mind. It meant nothing
unsigned, but with Grant's signature it would be very
serviceable, and Ward had turned his attention to getting
it signed. He afterward confessed to Walter S. Johnston,
the receiver of the Marine Bank, that he had slipped it
into a pile of other letters, and, presenting it to General
Grant as he was hurrying to finish his mail and catch a
boat, easily procured the signature without arousing
suspicion.
Ward's own testimony at the first trial was very re
markable. He was at first broken and a little bewildered,
and came to the stand " looking like a man suffering from
loss of sleep. His face was bloodless ; his ears seemed to
hang from his head." He admitted that he had been
insolvent for two years. He was unable to tell where
and when he bought his houses. He did n't know what
he had paid for Booth's Theater. He did n't remember
when he bought it. He did n't know when he obtained
property in Stamford, nor when he bought the furniture.
The " books of the firm " were not the " books of the
office " ; there was a difference. The " books of the firm "
included books which the Grants had never seen. He
admitted that there had never been any contracts ; that
when he said "invested in a contract," it meant that the
502 LIFE OF GRANT
money went into the bank as his personal deposit. He
did not remember that he had ever had any dealings with
the government of any kind. He admitted putting the
Vanderbilt check into his personal account. He admitted
having paid three thousand dollars for jewelry on the 22d
of April, but he had forgotten to whom he gave it. He
had no contracts, and he was making no such profits as he
paid to investors. Business was transacted in the name
of Grant & Ward, but no one transacted it but himself.
He admitted that the Grants knew nothing about it.*
This question was facetiously asked of him : " You made
a sort of banking basis, then, by imagining that you had
made profits, for a portion of which you were chargeable
to an investor; and you would credit him with the ima
ginary portion of those imaginary profits, and then he
would get it out by means of a check to your order, which
you would deposit to your credit?"
To this Ward replied: "Yes; something like that."
" Was it anything short of humbuggery upon an ima
ginary basis? "
To this Ward made no reply. He said again and again
that the Grants knew nothing of his speculative business ;
that he kept two sets of books, one of which no one but
himself and Mr. Fish ever saw. His method, as he him
self delineated it, was to borrow large sums for pretended
investment, set aside a profit out of the principal, and by
prompt payment of this profit induce the lender to leave
the principal in his hands. He deceived the many for the
few, and these few were not the Grants. He was uncer
tain as to what became of immense sums. Some of them
appeared on the secret book he kept, and some did not.
In a later trial this singular book was put in evidence. It
was cabalistic in text. No one could understand it, not
even Ward himself.
Out of it all this final conclusion was formed : Ward
had carried on the most extraordinary game of "bluff"
that the nation had ever seen — a stupendous scheme of
paying profits from a principal which was never invested,
or which went to pay some clamorous debtor; a "blind
* Generalized from Ward's testimony before Commissioner Cole.
THE GRANT & WARD FAILURE 503
pool," into which he led men to their ruin and ultimately
to his own ruin. He was indicted first by the United
States courts at the same time that Fish was indicted.
Fish was convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprison
ment. Closely following Fish's conviction, Ward was in
dicted in the State court for grand larceny, convicted, and
sentenced to prison for ten years. The judge, in senten
cing Fish, made it plain that, though the sentence might be
lawfully seven times seven, out of regard for his gray hairs
the sentence was not made cumulative.
Out of this deplorable entanglement General Grant
emerged cleared, so far as the judgment of the majority
of his fellow-citizens was concerned, of any knowledge of
the business which Ward conducted. There were those,
of course, who were ready to believe that he knew of the
use of his name, and that he shared in the profits. It is
probable that no one fully informed of the facts in the
case holds such an opinion to-day. Grant was the victim
of over-confidence in a shrewd and ingratiating financier.
CHAPTER L
THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE
ON the first day of June, 1884, General Grant's physi
cal condition, as well as his financial situation, was
deplorable. He was still lame from the effects of a fall
suffered some months before. He was sixty- two years of
age, without a profession, and unfitted for business both
by ill health and by education. Having been an actor in
more dramatic events than any other American that ever
lived, having been lieutenant-general of the United States
armies, and President for two terms of the United States,
it now seemed as if nothing more remained for him but
to slowly slip down into the decrepitude, comparative ob
scurity, and despair of an idle old age. This feeling, as
much as any other cause, sapped his vitality and his reso
lution. He saw nothing more for him to do. The spe
cial fund of stock in the Wabash Railroad was decreasing
in value, and seemed likely to fail of dividends. He was
threatened with actual need. His fellow-citizens were
harshly critical, and he was charged with bringing the
whole of his financial trouble upon himself by undue greed.
It was a time which taxed his resources to the utmost.
Before the failure of the firm of Grant & Ward, the
editors of the " Century Magazine " had approached him
with a proposal to write an article upon the battle of
Shiloh, which was still being hotly contested on writing-
tables, North and South. But the general, being as little
inclined to write as to make a speech, had bluntly refused
to undertake the task.
But conditions had changed, and when the editors again
504
THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE 505
approached him he consented, and began at once an article
upon Shiloh. He had always held in reverence comman
ders like Halleck and McClellan, who could write a book,
and considered himself the last man in the world to at
tempt anything more than a report. He was astonished
and pleased when the article grew in his hands from a dry
statement of facts to a very full account, with which the
editors were delighted. From regarding it as a laborious
task, he became deeply interested in it, and readily con
sented to continue his work with an article on Vicksburg.
It took his mind off his troubles, and carried him back
amid the splendid and dramatic events of 1862 and 1863.
The second article was even more successful than the
one upon Shiloh, being less controversial in effect. And
now the publishers of the country, hearing that he was
writing his memoirs, made him the most liberal offers for
a book. Then it was that he realized his power to earn
not merely money for his daily needs, but to provide a
competency for his wife, if he should die before her. This
consideration decided him to set to work in earnest upon
the retrospect of his life. He had secretly resigned him
self to the thought that he was an old man and an infirm
man, and that any work he had to do must be done
quickly.
He called in Colonel Adam Badeau, his military biog
rapher, and began writing, with his usual single-hearted
intensity, upon the account of his school-days. He worked
five or six hours each day at his house on Sixty-sixth
Street, not far from Central Park. He did not venture
down- town, and the men of Wall Street never saw him again.
He was done with business, and the pleasures of his life
were found in the glow of his own fire, in an occasional
drive, and in the light of his grandchildren's faces. He
wrote busily with his own hand, handing the manuscript
over to his son and Colonel Badeau for revision and prepa
ration for the printer. He was a ready and fluent writer,
and little change was necessary.
One day in the early autumn, after eating a peach, he
complained of pain in his throat. The pain was slight,
but it returned again when he swallowed solid food.
506 LIFE OF GRANT
Thereafter eating grew each day more painful ; but as the
spasm passed quickly away after each effort, he gave little
thought to it until there came an exterior swelling of the
throat, which increased perceptibly. Then the seriousness
of the case became apparent to Mrs. Grant. She insisted
on his calling upon Dr. Barker, the family physician.
Dr. Barker considered it serious enough to advise the care
of a specialist, and suggested Dr. J. H. Douglas. Dr.
Douglas made an examination, and prescribed certain
lotions and gargles, and the general went back to his work,
in which he was now completely absorbed. He worked
five or six hours each day, and his mind was deep in the
past. He was resolute to complete his book during the
winter. The publishers foresaw the great value of the
work, and made him feel it in order to encourage him to
proceed.
He went every day to see his physician, using the
street-cars from motives of economy. But notwithstand
ing all the lotions and alleviating washes, the pains in the
throat increased till eating became an agony which even
his iron will could not entirely conceal from the watchful
eyes of Mrs. Grant. Solid foods at last became impossible
to him. He kept his place at the table, but seldom had a
part in the meal.
In such wise the winter wore on. Steadfast friends
occasionally called. Old army officers, being in the city,
dropped in to see the " old commander," and former neigh
bors from Galena or Georgetown always found a welcome.
Nevertheless, the "old commander's" life would have been
very irksome had it not been for the writing which filled
much of his time and nearly all of his thoughts. He was
now practically unregarded by the great world of com
merce and business. His friends in Congress were trying
to help him by means of a bill restoring him to his rank as
general of the army and retiring him on full pay ; but each
attempt met with bitter opposition. The bill had been
once defeated, in 1881. Since then the matter had rested.
But when his misfortunes became known, attempts were
again made to bring the bill to vote. A pension had been
suggested, but this the general steadily refused to consider.
THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE 507
There now arose a new occasion of distress to him.
Some of the small creditors of the firm of Grant & Ward
were attempting to levy on the souvenirs and tokens
which General Grant had made over to Mr. William K.
Vanderbilt in security for the loan procured in the inter
est of Grant & Ward. General Grant was poor, but he
was not abject. He wrote to Mr. Vanderbilt, and requested
him to offer for sale all the property he held, including the
souvenirs and trophies of peace and war. To this Mr.
Vanderbilt replied, expressing a willingness to turn over
all the personal articles, to be held in trust by Mrs. Grant
and the general during their lifetime, and to become the
property of the government after their death. This Gen
eral Grant declined to accept, and the articles were turned
over directly to the government, and placed in the museum
at Washington.
On February 20, 1885, the first bulletin of Grant's con
dition reached the public. " The action of Congress in
refusing to pass the bill restoring him to his honors has
been very depressing to him," the physicians said; "but
he is feeling very comfortable otherwise." They were
making the best of a very bad case, for the general was
already reduced in weight from nearly two hundred
pounds to barely one hundred and forty-five, though his
face did not show this emaciation. He had nearly ceased
to work on his book. The first volume was finished, and
the second was begun ; but the granitic resolution of his
indomitable soul could not master the growing weakness
and lassitude of his body. He became silent and distrait,
and sat amid his family in abstraction which filled them
with terror. When alone, he lay stretched out on one
reclining-chair, with his feet in another, facing the fire,
with eyes which saw neither flame nor wall. Occasionally,
when roused by some friend, he spoke of his book, and
expressed a desire to finish it. He spoke of it as one
might who wished to complete some task before going on
an inevitable journey. He was waiting the summons of
the bugle, and was ready to obey.
His activity of mind was enormous. He could do
nothing but think. His great brain, filled with innumer-
508 LIFE OF GRANT
able scenes, conceptions, plans, and deeds, kept up its
ceaseless whirl, turning night into day, and day into a
phantasmagoric dream of the past. The writing of the
book had recalled and made vivid and present all his
changeful and epic history, and as the external lost power
and interest, his mind turned back upon itself.
He was confined not merely to the house, but to his
room. To walk around the hall and back was a long jour
ney. Visitors were at last denied him, but he had around
him nearly his entire family. His sons were with him con
stantly, and his daughter Nellie had been sent for. Little
by little the details of his condition became public, and
the returning regard of the world began to make itself felt.
Resolutions of sympathy began to come in from State
legislatures and other bodies. The Assembly of New York
expressed to the New York delegation in Congress their
wish that the bill in aid of General Grant should pass,
and interest was again revived in it.
At last, just in the final hour of the session, an agree
ment was reached whereby a vote was taken. Congress
man Randall moved that, by unanimous consent, the bill
be taken up, and to this the Democratic majority of the
house agreed, provided a certain contested election case
were taken up and voted upon. Thereupon Mr. Wilson
of Iowa, the holder of the contested seat, who had thus far
successfully filibustered against his opponent, generously
rose and said: " In order that this Congress shall do jus
tice to the hero of Donelson and Appomattox, I yield to
the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania." It cost
him his seat and his salary, but the bill restoring Grant to
his military rank and placing him on the retired list was
passed. President Arthur was in the Capitol, waiting to
sign the bill. He affixed his signature, and the formal
nomination of Grant went immediately to the Senate.
The Senate confirmed the nomination.
The honor came almost too late for the " old com
mander." When the telegram announcing it was read to
him, his eyes did not brighten, and he uttered no word of
pleasure or even of interest. He had gone beyond the
reach of acts of Congress. He had loosened his hold on
THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE 509
life. " I am a very sick man," he said to a friend; and in
his eyes was the look of a hunted creature, weary and
hopeless of rest.
During all this time the disease never rested. The
ulcer ate its way deep into his throat, sapping his vitality
and undermining his superb courage. It was recognized
at last to be a very grave matter indeed, and the friends
of the general began to allude to it as cancer. Up to this
time the ulceration had not been considered incurable.
Dr. Douglas and Dr. Barker grew alarmed at last, and
called in other physicians for consultation. Even then
no decision as to the character of the disease was reached.
About the roth of March, a piece of the diseased tissue
was placed before Dr. G. R. Elliott, an expert micro-
scopist, who also submitted it to Dr. George F. Shrady.
Dr. Shrady, who was afterward called to the case as one
of the consulting surgeons, corroborated the opinion of
Dr. Elliott. Without knowing whence the tissue came,
nor anything of the case at the time, he made an exami
nation, and immediately reported : " This tissue comes
from the throat and base of the tongue, and is affected
with cancer."
Dr. Elliott, though this was also his own conclusion,
said : " This is a very important matter. Are you sure ? "
" Perfectly sure. The patient from whom this tissue
comes has epithelial cancer."
Almost in a whisper the other said : " That tissue comes
from the throat of General Grant."
Dr. Shrady replied slowly : " Then General Grant is
doomed."
This appalling verdict of the men of science was made
public after a consultation at General Grant's home, and
the news was flashed round the world that General Grant
was attacked by cancer, and was fighting his last battle.
The nation awoke to sympathy. All criticism of the great
general was for the time laid aside, and the Christian public
offered daily prayers for his recovery. But the general
grew daily weaker. He could not sleep without morphia,
and yet he fought against its use. He feared becoming
a victim to its power, and endured to the utmost the
510 LIFE OF GRANT
agonies of sleeplessness before asking for relief. He was
the most docile of patients. " You are in command here,"
he would say to Dr. Shrady.
In order to take even liquid food, he was forced to fling
the contents of the bowl down his throat at one gulp, be
fore the spasm closed his throat. It required his utmost
resolution to do this. It was terrible to see his effort.
And yet he seldom uttered a word of complaint. He
never forgot to be courteous and mindful of others. He
obeyed his nurses like a child, at the same time that his
great brain pondered upon questions national in scope.
He concealed his despondency with studied care from his
wife, and was careful that she should not see him at his
worst. His son Frederick and his physicians knew the
whole appalling truth of his condition. The expediency
of performing a radical surgical operation was discussed
early in the case, but the surgeons considered the cancer
too deeply rooted to be removed by the knife.
The anodyne and the disease combined at times to
produce a dazing effect, and his mind wandered. Once
he said: " I am detailed from four to six." He was back
at West Point, a ruddy youth again. Once he clutched
his throat, and cried out, " The cannon did it," thinking,
perhaps, of the officer whose head was blown away by
solid shot at Palo Alto. He longed for spring to come,
and thought if he could get out and see the green grass
and the budding trees, it would help him. His illness
brought out the purely human side of a great historical
character. He became as gentle and patient as a woman.
The 2/th of March being a fine, warm day, Grant was
taken to ride in the park, and seemed brightened by the
change. Upon his return he was met by several attorneys
engaged in the trial of Fish, the former president of the
Marine Bank. General Grant's testimony was again
needed, and though emaciated, worn with loss of sleep,
and speaking with great difficulty, the general went to his
duty resolutely and with a certain readiness. He told all
he knew concerning the case, sparing neither Fish nor
Ward. He said that he had no knowledge of any specu
lation in government contracts, and that he had distinctly
THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE 511
charged Ward not to have any such business, and had
informed him that if the firm of Grant & Ward was
concerned in any way with such business he must retire.
In the presence of death, his testimony had a convincing
power which swept away all doubt.
The examination occupied less than an hour, but it
exhausted him, and he had a very bad night. Three days
later he had a choking-spell so deadly in its sudden seizure
that he rose from his chair in agony, crying out to his
nurse: "Oh, I can't stand it! I must die! I must go!"
But the spasm passed away, and under the ministrations
of the physicians he became easier.
It was now certain that General Grant was dying, and
the usually quiet street swarmed with reporters, and with
curious and sympathetic people, who walked slowly by,
looking up at the windows shining with the flare of gas-
jets at full flame.
The 3 ist of March was made memorable by a strange
incident. A professed astrologer had cast the general's
horoscope, and predicted that he would die on the 3 1st of
March. The family were anxious to keep all such matters
from the general, and papers containing them were ex
cluded from the chamber. But one morning, when the
family returned to the general's room from breakfast, they
found him intent on the astrologer's prediction.
They made no remark about it, but tried to keep his
mind off the thought of death; and yet he seemed to
dwell upon it. As the date set by the prediction drew
near, he seemed to be asking very often, " What day of
the month is to-day? " He sometimes asked twice in the
same day ; and when his son Ulysses answered on one
occasion, he said: "You told me that before."
" I know I did, father; but it was this morning."
" I had forgotten it," he replied. The anodynes had
affected his memory.
The family were alarmed at his anxiety. He seemed
dwelling on that particular day in March. At last the
dreaded day came, and then it fell out that it was the day
on which he was to receive his first month's pay as Gen
eral Grant. He had been thinking of that, and not of the
512 LIFE OF GRANT
astrologer's prediction. He could scarcely wait until the
money came. When it was placed in his hands, he made
it up into rolls at once, and passed it to his sons and to
his wife, retaining only twenty-five dollars. He cared
nothing for the money himself, but he was eager to put it
into their hands. It was the final seal upon his restora
tion to honor and trust. His constant reference to the
3 1st of March showed how deeply, after all, he appreciated
the return of the nation's confidence and pride in him.
His indifference had been concealment.
" He is the most suppressive man I ever knew," said one
of his physicians at the time. " He is not devoid of emo
tional nature, but his emotions from early life have been
diverted from their natural channels of expression, and
have expended themselves at the vital centers. What
has been called imperturbability in him is simply intro
version of his feelings."
Toward the end of the day, as he grew easier, the gen
eral said reassuringly : " Yes, I am much better. I think
I shall pull through, after all."
To his son Ulysses he said : " I am ready to go. No
Grant ever feared to die. I am not afraid to die, but your
mother is not ready to let me go away. My only wish is
to leave her so that she will not want."
But that night the physicians did not leave the house.
They feared the worst. Some time in the early morning
Dr. Shrady, who was sleeping in a near-by room, was
roused by Dr. Douglas, who called him in great excite
ment, saying: "Get up; the general is dying."
As the two physicians reentered the room, the members
of the family were all gathered about the general's chair.
Mrs. Grant was kneeling by his side, imploring him to
speak. His head had fallen upon his breast, and he was
drawing his breath with great difficulty. There was no
time to be lost.
"What shall we do?" asked Dr. Douglas, who was
overcome with emotion.
" Hold on ; let us try some stimulants ; the general is
not dead yet," replied Dr. Shrady; and, with Dr. Doug
las's consent, he began to inject brandy into the veins of
the sufferer's wrist. In a short time after the first touch
THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE 513
of the syringe the pulse perceptibly improved ; the stimu
lant was having its effect. To the weeping family Dr.
Shrady said : " Don't despair ; the pulse is improving. The
general must not die. We will take the last chance."
Meanwhile the Rev. Dr. Newman appeared with a bap
tismal bowl filled with water, from which he solemnly and
with due form baptized the unconscious and apparently
dying man.
In a few minutes the general was able to speak. He
wanted to know what had happened. " I am surprised,"
he said gently to his wife, as he comprehended the mean
ing of the baptismal water. He then murmured something
about Hamilton Fish, and about his book. A little later
he was able to say : " I want to live and finish my book."
That seemed to be the most important thing.
A marvelous change for the better now took place in
the patient's condition. The sloughing of the diseased
tissue left him easier, and the gnawing of the disease
seemed to stop. He swallowed with less pain than for
many weeks. He relished his food, and his gain was
perceptible from hour to hour. Two days after the night
when he seemed to be dying, he was walking about the
room, and smiling and bowing at the window to the great
crowds in the street. On Easter Sunday, when a great
crowd was before the house, Dr. Shrady, upon whom the
writing of the daily bulletins had fallen, said : " General,
there are hundreds of people on the street waiting to hear
how you are this morning."
"They are very good; I am very grateful to them/'
Grant replied.
" What shall I say to them? "
" Say I am very comfortable."
"Why not tell me, general, what you would like to
have said, and I will embody it in a special bulletin as
coming from you?"
Then in faltering speech the general said : " I am very
much touched— and grateful— for the sympathy and in
terest manifested in me by my friends " — he hesitated —
" and by— those who have not hitherto been regarded as
friends."
His inherent delicacy would not let him speak of any
514 LIFE OF GRANT
one as his enemy at this time. He was magnanimous
beyond most men; but there were those whom he could
not forgive, and to whom he never alluded.
He was still gaining miraculously on the 9th of April,
the twentieth anniversary of Appomattox. The date was
referred to by Colonel Badeau, but Grant only answered
with a sad smile. He had no desire to celebrate it in any
way. He was still troubled about the future of his family,
and as he grew stronger the desire to finish his book came
back. With that done, he would consider his work on
earth finished.
Now that this sudden turn to strength took place, the
papers took on an injured tone. Their sympathy had
been wasted. The general was reported to be taking his
meals with his family, and actually eating solid food once
more. Every one was glad to have the illustrious patient
recover, of course, but no one liked to be misled by a
corps of doctors. Therefore, Drs. Shrady, Douglas, and
Barker became fair game. They were ridiculed as men
of little knowledge and of no discernment. The funny
men fell upon them with a rush. Imaginary bulletins
were printed, giving humorous details of the condition of
the doctors, signed, " U. S. Grant." Comic head-lines
abounded : " Grant Thinks the Doctors will Pull
Through"; "The Doctors Still Gain Slowly"; "A
Bad Day for the Doctors ; General Grant Watching Them
Closely." Their pulses were "said to be rising almost as
high as their bills." They were called the "silent men,"
in derision of their sudden abandonment of bulletins.
Great pressure was brought to bear to get outsiders
admitted to a trial of their hands upon the patient.
The general remained loyal to his physicians. He be
lieved in them, and no pressure could move him. He
said to Dr. Shrady : " Never mind what people say. You
are right. Don't be afraid. I am the one to be pleased,
and I am satisfied. Hold the fort."
He continued to gain, and soon resumed work. But all
the time the disease was there. The eye of science, the
microscope, had made no mistake. In the midst of this
sudden return of strength, the malignant ulcer, like a
THE FINAL YEAR OF LIFE 515
living thing, reached out and laid hold upon the vocal
chords, gradually throttling the voice of the great com
mander forever.
Spring opened warm and wet, and the patient was op
pressed by it. His gain was fitful. There were days
when he worked, and days when he did little but sit
and dream, always in that strangely suggestive attitude,
propped in a reclining-chair, his limbs wrapped in a gray
robe, his hands folded on his breast, his eyes looking
straight ahead, searching dim seas of speculation. Some
times he drove out for a short time, tottering to his car
riage. Surrounded by the street scenes, and the brisk,
agile, and curious pedestrians, he seemed but the wraith
of his stern, self-reliant manhood. When he felt particu
larly well, he dictated to a stenographer, walking painfully
up and down the room, till his voice failed him ; after that
he whispered his words into the stenographer's ear. At
last he was forced to write it all with his own hand ; but
he toiled with a desperate resolution painful to witness.
About the middle of May interested persons spread the
report that the general was not writing the book himself.
This was contradicted by those who saw him working day
by day, and the general himself despatched a letter to his
publishers wherein he stated conclusively that the book
was his own, and that no one had any claim upon it.
He took pleasure in his work, for it helped him to forget
his pain and weariness. " It is my life," he said to a
friend. " Every day, every hour, is a week of agony. I
am easier when employed."
As May grew old the weather became more and more
oppressive, and Grant began again to fail. Then the
question of removing him to the mountains came up, and
it was decided to take him out of the city at once. The
press of the nation grew serious again. It was perceived
that the physicians knew their business, after all. A friend
(Mr. James W. Drexel) put his cottage on Mount McGregor
at the general's service, and it was decided to accept of
the offer, and June 16 was fixed upon as the day of
removal. Thereafter Grant was eager to get away. He
longed with ever-increasing wistfulness for the trees and
516 LIFE OF GRANT
the sky and the wholesome influence of nature's springtime
life.
He did not deceive himself : he knew he was going away
to die ; but he was eager to escape the town and the close
confinement of his room. When he came out to enter his
carriage that beautiful June day, he was like a man walk
ing toward his open grave. His tottering walk, his ema
ciated limbs, and his pale and weary face were indices of
the power of the dread disease. There was no more joking
on the part of the public. The crowd stood in silent awe
to see him pass.
As he entered the train some of the officials saluted
him, and he disengaged his hand from his son's arm to
return the salute; some ladies bowed to him, and he
returned their salutations with instant courtesy ; and so
he entered the car and was whirled away up the pleasant
shores of the Hudson River. Naturally he thought of
West Point, which had seemed so beautiful to him when
he first saw it, a country youth of seventeen; and it
seemed more beautiful still, now that, as a dying man of
threescore years and three, he was looking upon it for the
last time. As he passed it he turned to his wife and
smiled a sad smile, and tried to speak, but could not; his
voice was utterly gone.
CONCLUSION
THE DEATH-WATCH IN THE WALL
THE day after the general's arrival at Mount McGregor
was made memorable by a significant message. After
returning from a walk, which he seemed to enjoy, he grew
restless and unaccountable in action. He moved to and
fro in the cottage as if seeking something, and at last, by
signs, he made known his wish for pencil and paper.
Being furnished therewith, he sat writing busily for some
time, and then handed two letters to Colonel Grant. One
was addressed to Dr. Douglas ; the other one bore the
superscription: " Memoranda for my family."
There was something ominous in his action, and the
son tore open the letter in great anxiety. It was a mes
sage of death. " I feel that I am failing," he had written,
and then passed on to certain things which he wished
taken care of after his death.
The family were thrown into an agony of grief ; but the
general sat quietly in his chair, as if resignedly waiting the
end. Fear was not in his face — only weariness and lofty
patience. His work was done. He had given up the
fight. His invincible will to live was withdrawn ; hence
forward the physicians must fight alone.
The days that followed were simply days of pain and
brave endurance, as his life forces slowly ebbed away.
Occasionally he hobbled out into the sunshine on the
piazza., but for the most part he kept to his chair and
mused in statue-like immobility on incommunicable
themes.
People from the surrounding country came in proces
sion past the cottage, eager to catch a glimpse of the most
518 LIFE OF GRANT
renowned man of his time. The railway brought other
swarms of curious or sympathetic tourists, and they stole
near and gazed silently upon the dying man, and then
moved on. He was not annoyed, as another might have
been, by these passing shadows. Once he wrote of them :
" To pass my time pleasantly, I should like to talk with
them, if I could." If they bowed to him he returned their
salutes ; and once, when a woman passing removed her
bonnet, he rose and removed his hat in acknowledgment.
His favorite seat was a willow chair which stood at the
northeast corner of the veranda, and there he sat during
the middle hours of each day to enjoy the sun and air; as
it grew chill he returned to his fireside. He listened at
courteously to the spokesman of a troop of school-children,
or to a little girl presenting a bouquet, as to a delegation
of leading citizens or foreign journalists.
Toward the latter part of June Dr. Shrady was sum
moned to see him. He seemed to find a pleasure in his
young physician, who was a keen, alert man, military
in his decision and promptness — a man of humor also,
and of a certain buoyancy of spirits. With him Grant had
a great deal of conversation, laborious on the latter's part,
for he was obliged to write every word.
" I am having a pretty tough time, doctor," he wrote,
in answer to a question, " though I do not suffer so muctt
acute pain. . . . My trouble is in getting my breath.
.. ;. . I sleep pretty well, though rarely more than an
hour at a time. ... I am growing lighter every day,
although I have increased the amount of food."
Alluding to his work, he said : " I have no connected
account now to write. Occasionally I see something that
suggests a few remarks. . . . At times it taxes my brain
to work ; now it would not. If I had a chapter to write in
my book, it would give me pleasure to write it. I am
thankful, however, that the work is done, and I am not to
add to it."
Though he was pain-weary and foreboding death, he
joked a little. Once he alluded to the doctor's close-cut
hair, and said it was done in order that, if the doctor was
stopped at Sing Sing, on his way to Mount McGregor, he
THE DEATH-WATCH IN THE WALL 519
would be properly clipped. During an examination of his
throat, he wrote an explanation of an attempt to whisper
another jocose remark : " I said, if you want anything
larger in the way of a spatula, — is that what you call it?
— I saw a man behind the house filling a ditch with a hoe.
It was larger, and I think it can be borrowed." Referring
to some report in a newspaper, he wrote : " The has
been killing me off for a year and a half. If it does not
change, it will get right in time."
But these moods were few; Grant knew too well his
own condition. He said also : " I have had nearly two
hours with scarcely animation enough to draw my breath.
... I have little hope for sleep to-day. ... I do not feel
satisfied with any position. I have thirteen fearful hours
before me before I can expect relief." And, again: " It
is postponing the event. A great number of my friends
who were alive when the papers began announcing that I
was dying are now in their graves. They were neither
old nor infirm people, either. I am ready to go at any
time. I know there is nothing but suffering for me while
I do live."
Dr. Shrady took leave of him, after promising to be
with him in the final hour, which both men knew would
come soon. The general computed the time it would take
for the doctor to reach his bedside, and mapped out the
route, and studied the various means it would be necessary
to employ. He planned it as he had been used to plan
his campaigns.
In a letter to Dr. Douglas he reverted again to the
" providential extension " of his time, and said : " I am
further thankful, and in a much greater degree thankful,
because it has enabled me to see for myself the happy
harmony which so suddenly sprang up between those
engaged but a few short years ago in deadly combat. It
has been an inestimable blessing to me to hear the kind
expressions toward me in person from all parts of the
country, from people of all nationalities, of all religions
and of no religion, of Confederate and of national troops
alike, of soldiers' organizations, of mechanical, scientific,
and religious societies, embracing almost every citizen in
520 LIFE OF GRANT
the land. They have brought joy to my heart, if they
have not effected a cure."
As his life rounded to a close, it took on epic scope and
dignity. Had he died at the end of the war he would
have been a mighty hero, but the man would have been
unknown. Had he died after his second administration, he
would have left a name at the mercy of politicians. But
to die now, after his work was done, his fame secure, was
in reality glorious. He forgave the world, but there were
men — old friends and subordinate officers — whom he could
not invite to his side. They had broken faith with him.
Duplicity was to him a most hateful thing, and being
human, after all, he turned his face from them. He
wished them no harm, but he could not forget their per
fidious deeds.
He continued to work a little on his book, for it was
conceded that it could do him no harm, and might relieve
his suffering. The Fourth of July was a great anniversary
for him. On that day he had won Vicksburg. He did
not need to be reminded of it, but he did not refer to it
himself. It was far from his wish to revive memories un
pleasant to the people of the South. His was not a
nature to exult over the defeat of others.
A few days later there came to Mount McGregor a
company of Mexican journalists; and though suffering
with special acuteness that day, the general welcomed
them gladly. He received them in silence (for he could
not even whisper), standing with bowed head while they
said in formal terms : " We could not pass so near a great
friend of Mexico without coming to pay our respects to
him." They then passed before him, and were introduced.
It was evident that his interest was very cordial. His
face lighted up, and when they had all shaken his hand,
he sat at a table and wrote a reply which showed his mind
to be at its best :
My great interest in Mexico is dated back to the war between
the United States and that country. My interest was increased
when four European monarchies attempted to set up their institu
tions on this continent, selecting Mexico, a territory adjoining us.
THE DEATH-WATCH IN THE WALL $21
It was an outrage on human rights for a foreign nation to at
tempt to transfer her institutions and her rulers to the territory of
a civilized people without their consent. They were properly
punished for their crime. I hope Mexico may soon begin an
upward and prosperous departure. She has the people, she has
the soil, she has the climateyand she has the minerals. The
conquest of Mexico will not DC an easy task in the future.
In answer to a Catholic priest who called to see him,
he expressed his tolerance of all creeds. When told that
all denominations and sects were praying for him, he
wrote : " Yes, I know, and I feel grateful. All I can do
is to pray that the prayers of all these people may be
answered so far as to have us all meet in another and
better world." To another he wrote: " I am glad that,
while there is unblushing wickedness in the world, there
is compensating grandeur of soul. In my case, I have not
found republics ungrateful, nor are the people."
About this time General Simon Buckner paid a visit to
his old classmate and conqueror. " It is a purely per
sonal visit," he said to General Grant. " I wanted you
to know that many Confederate officers sympathized with
you in your sickness and trouble."
I appreciate your calling highly [the Northern chieftain
wrote, in reply]. I have witnessed since my illness just what I
have wished to see since the war: harmony— harmony and good
will — between the sections. . . . We now look forward to a per
petual peace at home, and a national strength which will screen
us against any foreign complication. I believe, myself, that the
war was worth all it cost us, fearful as that was. Since it was
over I have visited every state in Europe, and a number in the
East. I know as I did not before the value of our institutions.
The meeting was deeply affecting to both men, and
General Buckner took his leave with Grant's lofty and
patriotic words filling his mind; and yet neither he nor
General Grant perceived the far-reaching significance of
the interview till it was over.
As General Buckner passed out of the house, the re
porters fell upon him, eager to know what was said. " I
522 LIFE OF GRANT
cannot tell you," he said. " The visit was purely per
sonal ; and, besides," he added, with eyes dim with tears,
" it was too sacred. Without General Grant's consent I
cannot speak."
After reaching New York, General Buckner received a
despatch from General Grant permitting the interview to
be made public. When it appeared that the interview
might add to the harmony and good will between the
North and the South, he was eager to have it sent far and
wide. Throughout all his later life he had had two pre
dominating desires : one, to put down rebellion ; and
when that was done, then his whole heart went out toward
the task of reconstructing the nation. And so now, though
having gone away into a mountain to die, he still desired
that every word of his should make for a united and
peaceful nation.
His wish was gratified. The words he wrote went to
North and South as messengers of peace. Again he said,
" Let us have peace." And standing there on the high
ground between earth and the things beyond the earth, his
words had all the force of a command and a benediction.
In ever-increasing calm and ever-decreasing sensibility
to pain, he drifted toward the shadowed world. His
introspection increased, and the certainty of his speedy
death grew very strong in his own mind. " I have ad
monitions that the doctors know not of," he wrote slowly
upon his tablet. " I think it doubtful that I shall last much
longer than the end of the month." Despair had no place
in the growing serenity of his manner. There was a lofty
courage which laid hold upon great conceptions of human
destiny. He subscribed to no creed, but he had an un
speakable faith in the integrity of the universe. He had
no map of the unseen land toward which he was march
ing, but he believed it to be a better land than this, and
that light and the guidance of reason would be present
there as in the world he was leaving. He did not know,
but he had no fear.
His consideration and his instant courtesy never left him.
His gratitude for little kindnesses was inexpressibly touch
ing. His physicians could look upon it only with tears.
THE DEATH-WATCH IN THE WALL 52$
On the 22<d of July he expressed a wish to be in a bed.
His bones were intolerably weary of the chair in which
he had spent night and day during months of ceaseless
suffering. The physicians looked at each other signifi
cantly. He was transferred to his bed, and as he stretched
out his tired limbs and lay full length at last, he drew a
sigh of relief, and smiled. He felt the delicious restfulness
of the bed as he used to do when a boy after a hard day's
work. That he knew it to be his death-bed is certain : but
it was none the less grateful because of that ; it was only
the more grateful.
" Does it seem good to be in bed ? "
" So good — so good," he whispered, in reply.
A deep, untroubled sleep fell upon him almost at once,
but the experienced read the advance of death in the labored
breathing and fluttering pulse.
Messages clicked through the invisible wires of the
night, and the physicians and the absent children came
hurrying toward the mountain, while the nurses stood
watching the worn and powerful face of the dying man.
Slowly the blood ceased to warm the body. The lower
limbs grew cold as marble, and the breathing grew ever
quicker and lighter. The lower cells of the lungs were
closing. Life was retreating to the brain.
The family at last were all there. The loyal wife sat
often by his side, where she could touch his face and
press his hand. His eldest son, erect, calm, and soldierly,
scarcely relaxed his painful vigil. It was a long and ter
rible watch, and when midnight came it was evident that
death was present in the room at last. The great soldier
lay in a doze which was the lethargy of dissolution, but
still responded to the agonized words of love from his wife
and daughter by opening his eyes in a peculiarly clear,
wide, penetrating glance. This was only momentary.
Each time it was more difficult to penetrate beneath the
freezing flesh to the living soul beneath. At two o'clock
of the morning Colonel Grant laid his hand on the dying
man's forehead, and said :
" Father, would you like a drink of water?"
In reply, Grant whispered: "Yes."
524 LIFE OF GRANT
At three o'clock Colonel Grant again approached the
bedside. " Father, is there anything you want?"
" Water," whispered the dying man ; and this was his
last word.
He could not swallow; but when his wife placed a
sponge in his mouth, he closed his lips upon it, and seemed
relieved by the trickling moisture.
All danger of a violent death was over. He was pass
ing peacefully away, his face calm and unlined by pain.
His body, wasted and grave-weary, composed itself for
final rest. The coldness crept slowly but inexorably
toward the faintly beating heart. The birds sang outside,
and the sun rose, warming the earth ; but no waking and
no warmth came to the great commander, lying so small
and weak beneath his coverlet.
At seven minutes past eight, in the full flush of a glori
ous morning, he drew a deeper breath, and then uttered -a
long, gentle sigh, like one suddenly relieved of a painful
burden. In the hush which followed the watchers waited
for the next breath. It did not come. One of the doctors
stole softly to the bedside and listened, then rose, and said
in a low voice: " It is all over."
Ulysses Grant was dead.
The pomp and pageantry of the funeral which followed
surpassed anything ever seen in America. The wail of
bugle, the boom of cannon, the rataplan of drum, the
tramp of columned men, were all of martial suggestiveness
— ceremony for which Grant cared little. But if his spirit
was able to look back toward his outworn body, it must
have been glad to see Joseph Johnston and Simon Buckner
marching side by side with their old classmates, Philip
Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman. Over the
body of Grant, the great warrior of peace, the North and
the South clasped hands in a union never again to be
broken. It is well that on the majestic marble mausoleum
erected to cover his body, on a wall looking to the south,
these words should be carved: " LET US HAVE PEACE " ;
for they express, more completely than could any other
symbols, the inner gentleness and patriotism of the man.
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14 DAY USE
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY